March 13, 2025

Spotlight: Instrumentation Control and Electrical Engineering (ICEE) Crew

Northern Water’s Instrumentation Control and Electrical Engineering (ICEE) crew has an important role in ensuring all technical aspects of Chimney Hollow’s operation. The team’s work allows operators to oversee and control various project mechanics such as pressure transfusers, flow meters and valve positions from our control center at the Willow Creek campus in Granby.

ICEE Technical Lead John Hanick oversees the project and helps other team members with programming, drawing and testing all system components. Even though Chimney Hollow construction is nearing completion, there is still a lot of work to be done before it can be declared fully functional. Within the next two months, the remaining materials will be on site, and once installed, dry and wet testing of the system can begin.

Chimney Hollow is designed to either fill or drain depending on water delivery needs, so once the reservoir starts to fill the ICEE crew will test six different operating scenarios to ensure operations are fully functional. “I like the challenge,” Hanick said. “I enjoy programming and solving technical issues.”

Electronics Technician Travis Goodin has been programming the programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are industrial computers located at remote sites, as well as the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system that operators use. The amount of database work is extensive, he said, because all numbers and values must be logged.

For Goodin, he said the biggest challenge is the unknown and accounting for changes. “The systems are simple, but they have to work all the time. We need to anticipate the unexpected and plan for the bad day,” he said.

He also enjoys the logic behind developing and understanding a whole system that is going to be in place for generations to come.