Put-in-Bay Solves Remote Connectivity Challenge and Picks Up a Bonus

November 17, 2021

Put-in-Bay is an Ohio island village off the shores of Lake Erie that is sometimes called “Key West of the North.” It is a popular destination for groups and families with the population of the Village increasing dramatically during prime season and major events, all of which puts strain on the water and wastewater systems.

Among the challenges the Village experienced was the inability to obtain timely and accurate information about certain critical lift station operations. Mike Mewhorter, Put-in-Bay’s wastewater superintendent says, “I evaluated several options for connecting my most critical station to our SCADA system at the central treatment facility, but the solutions were really complex and just too expensive.” As a result, Mike continued to search for a solution while managing the site manually with visits and with information provided by residents.

When Mike relayed these challenges to Covalen, Blue Pillar’s distribution partner for Ohio, Covalen immediately suggested Blue Pillar’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution because it was designed for just this purpose. With a few emails and some pictures from the Village, the Blue Pillar IIoT solution was proposed in a matter of minutes.  The Village also decided to take advantage of the solution’s unique extensibility by pulling in connectivity to their back-up generator in addition to the lift station pumps.  The Blue Pillar solution was fully installed and communicating in less than a day at a price of less than $2,400.

With Blue Pillar sending near-real-time information to his mobile device and computer, Mike is now able to manage the critical assets much more quickly and efficiently. He says, “Blue Pillar made this look easy. It was so simple and affordable. Picking up the generator monitoring as a simple add-on was a no-brainer bonus at these price points. We couldn’t be happier and are looking at putting Blue Pillar on more of our lift stations and water sites.”

Jeff Pontius, Municipal Utility Leader at Blue Pillar added, “Mike said it best…simple and affordable. That’s our mission. I’m glad we were able to solve his immediate challenges and demonstrate the extensibility of our IIoT solution to pick up his generator at the same time.”

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