ACTi joins forces wih Milestone to secure Grays Harbor PUD

ACTi Partners with Milestone to Secure Power Grid and Central Monitoring Station for Grays Harbor PUD

Grays Harbor PUD is a publicly owned utility district located just outside of Seattle in the rural areas along the coast of SW Washington state. Like many power companies, Grays Harbor PUD is dedicated to protecting the critical infrastructure their customers depend on while ensuring the safety of their personnel. In these remote areas, theft is also a concern, so the PUD is constantly monitoring its facilities to ensure cooper and other critical assets are protected. With 20 substations and a central monitoring HUB, Grays Harbor PUD needed to find a reliable IP surveillance solution, and an IP solution from ACTi was the logical choice.

Partnering with Custom Security, a local Systems Integrator out of Olympia, Washington, ACTi cameras and video servers were used to give Grays Harbor PUD a solution that was efficient, highly saleable and cost effective. When the PUD started to expand the scope of their surveillance system, some legacy PTZ Speed Domes were converted to IP using the ACD-2100 video encoder. Additionally, some substations were without 360-degree coverage so ACTi CAM-6630's IP Speed Domes were installed to give each substation a full view of its surroundings. These cameras give operators a full overview of the substation sites at 30 FPS at D1 resolution. For fixed positions, the ACM-7411 was an attractive choice. At 1.3 Megapixel, the ACM-7411 has an IP66 rated vandal resistant housing that provides operators with excellent video at 1280 x 1024 resolution. Aside from providing perimeter coverage to ensure the sites physical security, the 1.3 Megapixel resolution allows for technicians to assess problems faster and easier by providing digitally enhanced images to properly assess whether or not a technician is needed on site.  Before these cameras, any alarm at the substations would summon a PUD technician, sometimes responding to false alarms. With the cameras able to clearly read gauges, Grays Harbor PUD is able to save resources from unnecessary time and travel costs. In certain instances,

ACTi cameras and video servers were used to give Grays Harbor PUD a solution that was efficient, highly saleable and cost effective

IR illuminators are strategically placed to give the cameras the ability to capture better detail in extreme low light environments.

Each substation sits on a high-speed fibre optic backbone that is directly connected to the central monitoring HUB. These connections allow for real time monitoring of all facility operations. The HUB itself consists of 18 separate buildings that are also connected with a high speed fibre optic backbone. Video is managed and recorded using Milestone's XProtect video management software. Mike McCahan, a project manager for Custom Security has been involved in this project from the beginning. Mike points out: "The cameras give the PUD eyes in the middle of nowhere including mountain top communication sites which serve many purposes including safety of employees working in remote areas, dangerous areas or in some cases alone at remote sites. The cameras also help with fence alarm signals," adding "they (technicians) can rapidly pull up a camera and see what is going on. This is where the PTZ units shine as they replace many cameras to gain full coverage of yards, substations, parking areas, storage facilities with valuable items behind fences."