SCADA grounding experiences in Alexandria, Egypt

This case study investigates the unique grounding problems which arose on a geographically distributed supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Since metallic connections were not used between the over 150 remote terminal units (RTUs), the wide geographic distribution of the equipment was not a source of the grounding issues. The problem arose from the need to interface a wide variety of vintages of equipment from a large number of different manufacturers into the common RTU system. The design solution presented had to deal not only with technical operability issues, but also with implementing the solutions in a manner that would not widen the legal liability for the engineering company performing the turnkey installation