Bonita Springs Utilities Goes Mobile to Streamline Operations

A long-time iFIX HMI/SCADA user, Bonita Springs Utilities in Southwest Florida serves one of the fastest-growing regions in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states. Its facilities are designed to anticipate a growing population’s increasing demand for drinking water and wastewater treatment.

To stay competitive with similar utilities and to maintain its mission to offer “safe, reliable and potable water and wastewater service,” Bonita Springs conducted a business process review that noted the utility’s manual, paper-based data entry procedures were not as efficient as they could be.

The nature of paper-based entry systems meant that operators would sometimes enter duplicate data or enter it in an inconsistent manner that required additional time and resources to process.

The risk of data entry errors was ever-present, and some data had to be copied from paper and re-entered into a spreadsheet, requiring hours of valuable employee time.

Bonita Springs Utilities provides water and wastewater service to more than 50,000 people living in a 60-square-mile service area that covers the City of Bonita Springs, the southern portion of the Village of Estero and unincorporated Lee County.

BSU has a water treatment capacity of up to 12 million gallons per day to allow for continued population growth and serves more than 40,000 wastewater connections.

Founded in 1969, the member-owned, nonprofit utility employs 130 people and has won numerous honors recognizing it for outstanding water distribution performance, best-tasting drinking water and plant of the year.

By the Numbers

• 50,000 service population
• 10 million gallon average daily water production
• 12 million gallon water treatment capacity
• 60 square mile service area
• 40,000 water connections
• 130 employees

GE Digital partner GrayMatter is co-innovating with Bonita Springs Utilities to allow plant operators making their daily rounds to input data digitally via a mobile application on a tablet — a first for the utility, which is seeking ways to use technology to improve efficiency and control costs.

The capabilities of the application will expand in response to feedback from BSU’s operators.

For example, the mobile application will allow operators to view near real-time iFIX SCADA system data remotely, allowing operators to compare physical gauge readings with their virtual counterparts.

• Equip plant operators with smart tablets to streamline inspections
• Eliminate inefficiencies related to paperwork
• Centralize critical data historian inputs

GrayMatter’s goal is to transform operations and empower people. Since 1991, we have been helping some of the biggest industrial organizations in the world harness data so they can work smarter. They lean on us to secure their critical systems and connect their industrial assets to their teams so that every operator is empowered to be the best operator. GrayMatter has been on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies list for six consecutive years and has grown to provide Advanced Industrial Analytics, OT Cybersecurity, Digital Transformation and Automation & Control services to clients in CPG, energy, food & beverage, manufacturing and water/wastewater industries across the U.S. and Canada.