Control Panels for Water & Wastewater

Sterling Made designs and builds UL 508A industrial control panels for municipal water treatment plants, wastewater processing facilities, pump stations, and water distribution infrastructure.

Massachusetts has over $151 million in active federal water infrastructure funding, and the Boston Water and Sewer Commission's $139 million capital plan is driving significant demand for pump station upgrades, SCADA modernization, and treatment plant automation.

Panel Types

Pump station control panels — VFD panels controlling submersible, vertical turbine, or centrifugal pumps with lead-lag-standby sequencing and level-based control
SCADA panels — Communication and telemetry panels integrating remote sites to central SCADA via cellular, radio, or fiber
VFD panels for pumps and blowers — 480V 3-phase with line reactors or harmonic filters
Chemical feed control panels — Panels controlling chemical metering pumps for chlorination, pH adjustment, fluoridation
Lift station panels — Duplex or triplex pump control with float or transducer level sensing and SCADA communication
Flow monitoring panels — Mag meter, ultrasonic, or Parshall flume flow measurement with data logging

Common Specifications

Specification	Typical Requirement
Enclosure	NEMA 4X stainless steel or fiberglass (outdoor/washdown)
Voltage	480V 3-phase for motor loads, 120V control power
SCCR	65 kAIC or higher per UL 508A Supplement SB
Redundancy	Lead-lag-standby sequencing, redundant level sensors, UPS backup
Communication	Modbus RTU/TCP, Ethernet/IP, DNP3 for SCADA
Environmental	-20°C to +60°C, heater for condensation control
Surge protection	SPD on incoming power and communication lines

Typical Components

Category	Common Selections
PLCs	Allen-Bradley CompactLogix, AutomationDirect Productivity2000, Siemens S7-1200
VFDs	ABB ACS580, Yaskawa GA800, Danfoss FC102 AQUA Drive
Enclosures	Rittal, Hoffman, Hammond — NEMA 4X stainless or Stahlin fiberglass
HMI	Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus 7, AutomationDirect C-more
UPS	APC Smart-UPS or Eaton for PLC and communication backup

Compliance & Standards

UL 508A — All panels built and labeled per UL 508A
NEC Article 409 — SCCR marking per 409.110
Massachusetts DEP — State requirements for water and wastewater instrumentation
Ten States Standards — Design guidelines adopted by New England regulatory agencies

Example Project

Municipal Pump Station Upgrade — Triplex VFD Panel with SCADA

A Massachusetts municipal water authority needed to replace an aging pump station control panel serving a 1.2 MGD station with three 25-HP submersible pumps. Sterling Made designed and built a 480V 3-phase panel in a NEMA 4X 316 stainless steel enclosure with three Danfoss FC102 AQUA VFDs (25 HP each), an Allen-Bradley CompactLogix L18 PLC, 16 discrete inputs, 8 discrete outputs, 6 analog inputs (4-20mA), and Ethernet/IP communication to SCADA via a Cradlepoint cellular gateway. SCCR calculated at 65 kAIC per Supplement SB. Complete document package included as-built schematics, I/O assignment table, VFD parameter list, SCCR worksheet, and hipot test records.

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