Department of Energy

West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP)

West Valley, New York

CHBWV Site Fire Supervisory System Upgrade

Project Objective

Encorus was tasked with replacing the existing hard wired site fire supervisory system to a new wireless supervisory system. The new system was to be tied to the new guardhouse being built on site.

Unique Project Features

The site had several buildings and locations spread out over large distances (up to 1,500 feet) that required to be connected to the new supervisory system and due to site conditions excavation was not permitted. Because of this a wireless was employed.

Due to the large distances between buildings the site not only used this supervisory system for fire monitoring but also for key process alarms in sensitive locations. The new system had to be programmed to distinguish between the two so that emergency services were not called for process alarms.

Encorus Group Solution

Encorus designed the new wireless fire supervisory system to encompass all fire and important process alarms to a local panel at each location. These locations varied from process buildings to outdoor transmission centers and relay “sheds.” Each panel would simultaneously communicate to two, newly installed, redundant wireless central computers. These central computers, linked by a high-speed fiber connection, in real-time relayed the best signal from each transmitting location to a pair of computer terminals for 24-hour surveillance and monitoring.

The system was provided with emergency backup power incase of loss of power. Encorus used key elements of  our NQA-1 program and experience to provide a high-quality design, testing, and assembly plan.

Specific Project Tasks

  • Field located and verify all fire and process signals required for system.
  • Design a new fire supervisory system
  • Purchase all equipment for site installation.
  • Field installed all the components of the new system
  • Tested and inspected the system once installed
  • Provide site training on the new system
  • Provide one year of warranty services.