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End of an Era: SCADA is Gone

The following are a series of e-mail messages detailing the retirement of the remarkable SCADA system which so many of us will remember.

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From: Reis, Nicholas J.
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 11:13 AM
To: Cushing, Edward W.; Harvey, Robert E.; Parent, Robert E.; Carreiro, Michael; DiBenedetto, Michael; Brown III, Allen E.; Karzenski, Wayne E.; Thiboutot, Normand L.; Fuller, Mary; Poisson, Jean E.; Fritsch, Robert; Jenness, Raymond; Dufault, Donald J.; Nelson, Donald E.

Subject: SCADA is gone


FYI,

Today, just before 11:00 AM the L&G SCADA system was shut down as planned.

A sad day, beware the ides of March!

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From: Carreiro, Michael
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 12:04 PM
To: Reis, Nicholas J.; Cushing, Edward W.; Harvey, Robert E.; Parent, Robert E.; DiBenedetto, Michael; Brown III, Allen E.; Karzenski, Wayne E.; Thiboutot, Normand L.; Fuller, Mary; Poisson, Jean E.; Fritsch, Robert; Jenness, Raymond; Dufault, Donald J.; Nelson, Donald E.

Subject: RE: SCADA is gone


Here's how it went down.

Ray Jenness took the last RTU off line.

Bill Miller stopped the application software on the backup system. Steve Fontaine stopped the operating system on the backup machine. I stopped the application software on the primary system. Bob Parent stopped the operating system on the primary machine. Bob and Steve turned the keys to power it down for the final time. (Art Wildgoose thought we were doing it tomorrow, and was not here.)

It has been a great couple of decades with that system.

Thank you all, for your support.

Mike

"If they only knew what they don't know!"

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From: Dufault, Donald J.
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 9:30 PM
To: Carreiro, Michael; Parent, Robert E.; Jenness, Raymond; Fontaine, Stephen J. (BKTN-RT); Wildgoose, Harold A.; Cushing, Edward W.; Bell, Robert; Miller Jr., William; Bonetti, Ed; Taylor, Aurora W.

Subject: FW: SCADA is gone


The Ides of March indeed... It was about that time of year in 1983 when I first set my eyes on this SCADA thing. It was there, in the middle of the floor, at Independence Harbor during our annual Supervisor's dinner. A live demonstration, and it was excellent. I remember standing near Dick Baker as he remarked how fantastic a tool this was. No one disagreed.

In my years at Brockton, I was on this system daily..... Failing it hourly......But loving every minute of it. It always performed flawlessly during storms, when we needed it the most. During Hurricane Gloria, when the whole world was asking us for information, it was the SCADA system that was the sole source of info that I used for customer count and initial damage assessment. People started to depend on it for critical decisions and operating efficiency. The system operators were using it as it should be used. The field crews trusted it without question.

Time for a new system... Technology was leaving us in the dust... Here comes SCADA II, and yes, it was bigger and better. I couldn't fail this system if I tried. This was where I discovered TRENDING. Yes, there is a God!! The system grew, the functions got easier to use, and the accuracy, durability and reliability stayed at the superior level. We were the envy of every operating distribution company in the area, if not the country.

The Ides of March, 1995... That was the day it was announced that I would be the Director of System Operations. I was humbled to be selected to head up the department that had this magnificent machine. Although I only spent 2 years in this position, there is no question that it was the best job I ever had. Not only did I have this excellent system but I also had an excellent team. It was then I discovered what really made this thing tick, the people behind it. It was truly a great blend of man, woman and machine which resulted in the successes of SCADA. Mike, to your point. They knew what they had. Unfortunately it fell to a modern day business decision. Rather than argue whether it was a good business decision, we should really think along the following lines. There has never been a person who knew anything about operations that wasn't in awe of it's capabilities, layout, functionality and you name whatever else.

Now another Ides of March has passed... Not as happy a time, is it? I find it ironic that Art Wildgoose wasn't there. In a melancholy way, one can draw a similarity to losing a good friend and not wanting to see them in the state they were in "at the end". Rather we want to remember them in the good times. My "good times" was sitting at station 4, split screens (4 Ways) on the 2 work stations, with a trend in each tile. Now that was hog heaven.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank and recognize the people that made SCADA tick through different phases. I know I will leave out someone so please don't be offended if somehow this e-mail gets to you and you're not listed. Art Wildgoose, Carl Zoubra, Jim Moneghan, Ed Cushing, Mike Carreiro, Bob Parent, Bill Miller, Steve Fontaine, Ray Jenness, Ed Bonetti, Boobles (I forgot his real name) and Ora Taylor. You know what you have accomplished. A lot of people know what you have accomplished, and I for one will never forget it.

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(These e-mail messages were published in their entirety with permission from the authors.)

Dog Days
Before becoming a Lineman, Bruce Trudeau was a Meter Reader in the BVE Office. Bruce was one of the Best Meter Readers the company had. One Spring day Bruce's Meter Reading route led him down a long winding driveway in the northern part of Cumberland. While driving down this driveway a dog darted out in front of Bruce's bright yellow company truck. Bruce slammed on his brakes. Unfortunately it was too late. The dog didn't survive... Bruce was totally devastated that he killed this dog. It plagued on his conscience for a long time.

EACH MONTH WHEN IT CAME TIME TO READ THIS CUSTOMERS METER, BRUCE WOULD TAKE THE DAY OFF.

EACH MONTH ANOTHER EMPLOYEE IN THE DEPARTMENT WOULD TAKE OVER THE ROUTE FOR THE DAY.

EACH MONTH NO ONE WOULD READ THIS METER...

One afternoon a customer came into the BVE office complaining to the cashier Tammy.

"My meter hasn't been read in 3 months. Would you mind looking into why my meter hasn't been read?"

Tammy phoned me to find out why the meter wasn't read. I brought the account up- not realizing at the time that this was the former residence of the poor crushed dog. I noticed that the account was marked 02-- In my mind this was clearly the reason that it wasn't read. 02 was the code for vicious dog. This code was used to warn Meter Readers of a dog being in the vicinity of a meter. I replied to Tammy "Obviously the reason behind the account not being read is because of the customers vicious dog." She conveyed the information I supplied to her verbatim leaving out the vicious dog part. The customer was now very irritated I could hear his BOISTEROUS FILLED ANGRY VOICE blurt out...

"IT IS TRUE THAT I DID HAVE A DOG!!--- BUT IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT YOUR METER READER RAN OVER MY DOG, KILLING HIM - 3 MONTHS ago!!!!!!!

Poor Tammy!

OPEN MOUTH INSERT FOOT!!!

Johanna MacDonald

Just Deskpicable
I have had many many laughs at EUA, but none as good as the one I had when myself and my two good friends from the maint. dept. decided to play a joke on a very nervous Frank Lannon. It was just after lunch and Frank had just left to make his daily run from WBW to the Dupont sub to file something away in his beloved record retention storage hole. Frank B., Brian H., and myself figured it was time to rile Frank up a bit. We went into Frank's office and took everything off of his desk and stole the desk. After we removed it, we placed everything that was on the desk, on the floor in the exact same spot it was on the desktop. We were also kind enough to leave his chair there. Well when Frank returned, I was in my stockroom, and I could hear him scream down the hall. The first one he ran into was Brian. He asked about his desk and Brian said "I have no idea what you are talking about". Then he came to find me. I heard him coming down the hall, so I grabbed the phone and started having an in depth conversation with a dial tone. He was all red and shaking. Good thing we didn't need 911. So while I'm on the phone looking rather busy, in walks my good friend Frank Berthelette. When Frank Lannon screams at him "WHERE IS MY DESK?", Frank calmly says "We sent it out to be painted!!!!!!" Frank Lannon stormed out like a pitbull with his hair on fire. After we returned the desk, and laughed our butts off for a good hour, Frank came down and apologized for getting so mad at our practical joke. I'm glad he could laugh with us. Thank you to Frank Berthelette, and Brian Howell for making my 9 years in WBW with them, a laughfest.....Oh by the way boys....I won all the calendar contests!!!!!!!!

JMD!

Pennies from Heaven
When I first started at Montaup Electric I was a Yard Worker. Basically I shoveled coal. One wet and dreary day a few of my co-workers decided to play a little sham. I was shoveling a pile of coal and came across some change...money...buried underneath. Thinking nothing of it I scooped up the 50 or 60 cents and continued to shovel. After a few more minutes I came across a few more coins. I thought to myself this is becoming a very productive day. I went back to my shoveling with more fervor than before. Come to find out, my "buddies" had been dropping change from above to get me to work harder and faster so they could "take the day off." Needless to say we had a good laugh about it. Right? Bruce Trudeau and Jim Arpin? I miss those guys. By the way..those dummies dropped enough change that I was able to get a pitcher of beer after work...hehehe..who was the fool????

Tim Lewis

No Room at the Inn
I started at EUA as the security officer on the night shift at the West Bridgewater facility which was just being built at the time. When I went to work there I asked what kind of business was going to go in there and my boss at the security company just told me it was "a public utility". I was pretty young and wasn't quite sure what "a public utility" was. But it turned out to be a good job, nice and quite, and nothing ever happened on the night shift. There still wasn't anyone working in the building when they finally installed the big security desk at the employee entrance. I was sitting there in the middle of the night one night, staring at the monitors when I noticed a very large car lumbering into the driveway. Most cars that came into the driveway that late at night were just turning around but this one kept going. It came all the way back to the employee parking lot, over to the far side of the lot and then swung around to the walkway. The passenger door on the car opened and a man got out. He walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk. Of course I was unarmed and there was no one else around so I was pretty nervous. I watched as he removed what appeared to be a suitcase from the car and set it down on the sidewalk. He waved to whomever was in the drivers seat and the car took back off up the driveway. The man then picked up his suitcase and came up the walkway. It then became painfully obvious that he was drunk. He was weaving and bobbing and he couldn't stand straight. As I watched, he proceeded to make his very bleary way to the door inner door - which was locked. When he realized he couldn't open the door he looked over to me as if I was terribly rude and motioned to be let in. I asked him why he was trying to come in and he responded that he needed a room for the night! I told him it wasn't a hotel. He slurred, "well, what is it, then?" I told him the only thing I could, that it was "a public utility". "A public utility?!" he exclaimed. I was hoping he wouldn't ask me what a public utility was when the big car came cruising back down the driveway. I told him his ride was back and that he should go. Without another word, he weaved and bobbed and stumbled back the way he had come and drove off into the night. I realized later that I probably should have called a cab for the man and his driver, but I was so freaked out by the whole episode!

Mary Tufts

Bombs Away
Cathy Maloney was a cashier in the BVE office for many years. She was very dedicated to Blackstone Valley Electric as you will see by this story. One sunny day Cathy was in the cashier booth, when a gentleman came into the building. This man needed to speak to someone in purchasing. Cathy told the man to take a seat in BVE's simulated leather chairs. She promptly called purchasing and had an employee meet the man in the lobby. The man followed the BVE representative to the purchasing department leaving behind his briefcase next to the brown simulated leather chair. Cathy was going about her daily duties one of which was to read the National Enquirer when Charlie Thurley came bursting through the doors into the lobby. Charlie Thurley was Personnel Director of Blackstone Valley Electric. Charlie immediately noticed the lone briefcase and questioned Cathy on its ownership.-- You see Charlie was right on top of these things due to the fact that many companies were on alert because of bomb threats from Iran. He received warning letters to this effect daily. Cathy told Charlie that she sent the man to purchasing. Because of Charlies concern of a bomb-- he immediately commissioned Cathy into bomb squad duty. He directed Cathy to take the briefcase out of the building as far away as she could and to leave it on the front lawn. Cathy Maloney the very ambitious employee that she was did this. She then went about her other duties reading her People magazine. While reading she was again interrupted. This time it was the gentleman that she sent to purchasing. He asked Cathy if she knew where his briefcase was. Cathy pointed outside and said we had to put it outside. The man quizzically asked but why? Cathy told him that they were afraid of a bomb being in it. The man just walked out of the lobby shaking his head!!!!