Industrial Wireless


Protecting Australia’s harbours from a silent threat

January 2024 Industrial Wireless

Omniflex has completed the addition of remote monitoring to the existing cathodic protection (CP) systems at five berths in Port Kembla, Australia. This will enhance their surveillance and provide accurate energy monitoring. CP systems are monitored on both concrete and steel structures, with different numbers of transformer/rectifiers, anodes and reference electrodes. This complicates the monitoring requirements. The measurement data is now sent via the 4G mobile phone network to the NSW Ports Data2Desktop web portal, which integrates the CP systems into the NSW Ports remote berth monitoring.

“Monitoring of CP systems involves measuring T/R output voltages as high as 60 volts, individual anode currents using existing current shunts which are only millivolts, and reference electrodes which require very high input impedances,” explains David Celine, managing director of Omniflex. “Our PowerView iRef8 monitoring unit, with its individual channel isolation, high input impedance, and multiple measurement ranges is purpose designed for these CP monitoring applications.”

Checking cathodic protection functionality is usually done by inspection once every six or 12 months. Corrosion is silent, and any failures such as disconnected anodes or failed power supplies could go unnoticed for up to a year, leaving structural steel unprotected against corrosion. Tracking the electricity usage of CP systems has other benefits too. Firstly, energy consumption can be quantified for cost allocation purposes. Furthermore, a business’ sustainability depends on accurately measuring its carbon footprint, so monitoring energy usage of CP systems is key to meeting this goal.


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