Prince William Water SCADA Modernization

Background

Six Years, 105 Sites, One Reliable System

Prince William Water is the largest combined water and wastewater authority in Virginia, serving more than 380,000 people in Prince William County, one of the fastest growing and most diverse communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

The authority’s infrastructure handles up to 56 million gallons of water a day of water distribution and processes up to 43 million gallons a day of wastewater.

GrayMatter completed Prince William Water’s first phase of SCADA system upgrades on time and under budget between mid-2020 and late 2022. That track record of success led to a second, larger phase: design-build services to upgrade SCADA systems at what would eventually total 105 sites over two phases across the county.

The system’s equipment had grown obsolete, limiting system reliability and security. It also meant operators had to manually run processes that current technologies could run automatically.

Challenges

The modernization project grew out of Prince William Water's Organizational Strategic Plan, which called for replacing the authority's legacy SCADA system.

The system’s equipment had grown obsolete, limiting system reliability and security. It also meant operators had to manually run processes that current technologies could run automatically.

This left gaps in real-time monitoring and reporting across the system.

For example, the outdated system’s communication bandwidth provided an incomplete view of station statuses and alarms, limiting PWW’s ability to diagnose issues remotely. As a result, personnel had to spend time traveling into the field to diagnose problems.

Solution

Under a design-build delivery model, GrayMatter took on the full project lifecycle: design, electrical permitting, instrumentation and panels, electrical and mechanical installation, construction management, commissioning and training and O&M manuals.

GHD served as Prince William Water’s project representative, keeping design, execution, and added scope aligned with the client’s priorities throughout.

The project reached substantial completion in June 2026, with final completion set for August 2026.

Prince William Water's Project Management Office Director Shannon Spence called it “an absolute unicorn.”

“This project came in under budget, ahead of schedule with extra scope added,” she said. “I think it's really a testament to the power of design build and the quality of the folks on the team.”

GrayMatter addressed Prince William Water’s goals via four main avenues:

Modernization - Replace antiquated and obsolete equipment with well-supported upgrades.

Highlight: The new system replaces old hardware and hardwired controls with modern PLC-based controls. This makes the system more flexible, easier to maintain and troubleshoot.

Results

During a close-of-project celebration at Prince William Water, Spence awarded the GrayMatter team with the county’s “Outstanding Design-Build Team” award, recognizing the work on the SCADA modernization project.

GHD's Samantha Kuhlman, who served as project manager for the firm's role as Prince William Water's project representative, praised the team’s achievement, saying, “We modernized all their controls, and we gave them a reliable and resilient system at the end. Very happy with how everything turned out.”

For the GrayMatter team, the project's impact went beyond the infrastructure itself.

“It was even better to bring a lot of young engineers into this project and see them grow and be successful,” said David Cunningham, GrayMatter's engineering team lead for Virginia and the project's construction and commissioning manager. “I think that was probably my favorite part of it.”

Project manager Don Li echoed that view, “It's a good learning experience and I'm glad that the whole team can deliver strong results for our clients. I’m definitely looking forward to doing similar projects in the future.”

Alan Hinchman, GrayMatter CRO, praised the work of GrayMatter’s team.

"They created an environment where everyone can have mutual success,” he said. “That's what makes this special.”

The new system provides high-bandwidth and redundant communications (cellular and cable) capabilities, and PLC-based control systems provide a wealth of information for remote operations and diagnostics, drastically reducing “windshield time” for operators.

Beyond the technology itself, Prince William Water officials wanted complete operational awareness and flexibility, meaning they wanted the ability to strategically adjust the water treatment and distribution processes to compensate for changes in demand, weather and water quality. That capability had to extend to a variety of geographically dispersed sites, all without disrupting service to its customers.

The scope grew as work progressed.

In 2025, Prince William added sites to the contract with GrayMatter. Sustaining schedule and budget performance through the change demanded tight coordination between GrayMatter, Prince William Water and the project's engineering representative.

Standardization - Consolidate disparate systems under a unified technology stack.

Highlight: A modern communication backbone enables PWW to monitor and collect a wealth of information in real time.

Security - Enhance physical and cybersecurity measures to ensure regulatory compliance.

Highlight: Additional cameras provide more diagnostic tools. For example, a camera network can allow an operator to visually verify the presence of smoke or a water leak in an area where there’s alarm. The operator can immediately switch pumps remotely and avoid a fire.

Redundancy - Integrate redundancy into the solution to improve system resilience.

Historical data helps with troubleshooting by observing trends of increased pump failures over time, uncovering bearing issues and avoiding unplanned equipment failures at critical station.

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