RUMS Stage 3 Upgrade completed for Defence

The original Regional Utility Management System (RUMS) was completed in 2003. Since then, the system has grown in size and functionality, with the latest upgrade being completed recently by VRT. The initial focus of the system was to assist with the management of energy consumption and greenhouse gas reduction and reporting. The latest upgrade added more system infrastructure management and power quality facilities, i.e. the upgrade had more of an engineering focus. One of the key drivers was to establish this type of infrastructure now and in advance of the major redevelopments planned for the base in the next few years - approx. 30% of the Gallipoli Barracks will be redeveloped as part of the ELF2B project currently underway.

The salient features of the upgraded system include:

• The capture of more parameters for electrical network operational performance as well as capacity utilisation and planning.
• Reporting of KVA data in preparation for KVA tariffs in 2010.
• Addition of exception and event reporting.
• Upgrade of the web based reporting system to incorporate drill-down flash charts, roll-over value displays, etc.
• Addition of an event commenting system which is synchronised between the web and Citect environments.
• Communications subsystem diagnostics system in Citect using a new SNMP-OPC server supplied by Matrikon.
• A total system health facility covering all power and comms networks and computer system components and enabling the rebooting or restarting of all devices or computer programmes remotely.