Papers > SCADA Preventative Maintenance

 

ITRC Paper No. P 19-002.  Kyle Feist, Zach Markow, and Charles M. Burt

SCADA Preventative Maintenance: Reducing the Potential of Unexpected Failures

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Irrigation district infrastructure utilizing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems can perform a critical service to irrigators, but also present the risk of damage to nearby property and humans in certain failure scenarios. It is therefore prudent to minimize the scope, frequency, and duration of SCADA component failure. However, it is typical for irrigation districts to focus on corrective (post-failure) SCADA maintenance activities, instead of investing in preventive maintenance.

 

Preventive SCADA maintenance requires budget and labor investment. However, it is anticipated that it is possible to balance the effectiveness and expenses of a preventative maintenance program with some strategic forethought. For example, preventative maintenance is a major topic of discussion in other industrial applications with similar economic and safety risks. It follows that preventative maintenance can be a valuable tool, especially for complex systems such as SCADA.

 

This paper provides a survey of several preventative maintenance philosophies and discusses preventative maintenance strategies for irrigation district applications. A template for a preventative SCADA maintenance program is also provided.

 

 

Feist, K., Z. Markow, and C.M. Burt. 2019.  SCADA Preventative Maintenance: Reducing the Potential of Unexpected Failures. Presented at 12th International Conference on Irrigation and Drainage. USCID. Reno, NV, November 5-8, 2019.

 

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