Smoothing the Road: Utility Lifecycle Management

By Steve Morse - Sr. Project Manager

Utilities depend on field SCADA systems for safe, real-time visibility and control of gas, water and electric operations. Yet many legacy systems were built over decades without standards or a formalized lifecycle management program. As a result, designs vary from site to site, documentation practices differ across teams and vendors, and field crews often spend significant time reworking issues that could have been resolved early in the process. Without standards and a unified lifecycle management approach, SCADA work becomes reactive, inconsistent and expensive.

Across modernization efforts and field-delivery programs, the same 11 issues surface again and again. The good news: when utilities address these challenges directly, they create consistent, scalable systems and a strong, repeatable lifecycle management program—one that supports continuous improvement and delivers reliable performance year after year.

1. Aging equipment

Outdated PLCs, RTUs and network transport devices reduce reliability and make failures harder to recover from. Fix: Use multi-year replacement plans tied to end-of-life notices.

2. Inconsistent designs

Design drift across decades creates mismatched configurations and unclear I/O and control mapping. Fix: Adopt standard design packages, naming conventions, QA reviews, and centralized design storage with version management.

3. Land and permitting issues

Outdated surveys, limited visibility into existing land encumbrances (such as easements and leases), access limitations and inconsistent permitting delay projects and complicate design and construction. Fix: Use updated surveys and repeatable land and permitting workflows.

4. Communication problems

Weak coverage and aging network transports cause telemetry gaps, delayed alarms and loss of remote control. Fix: Use redundant communication paths and early signal and propagation studies.

5. Cybersecurity gaps

Legacy devices and weak segmentation expose both data and control layers to risk. Fix: Use role-based access, secure segmentation and defined patching and configuration practices.

6. Configuration drift

Mismatched logic, firmware and settings create unpredictable system behavior. Fix: Centralize configuration management and enforce version control.

7. Commissioning gaps

Inconsistent commissioning leads to incorrect mapping, alarm alignment issues and turnover problems. Fix: Use standard FAT, SAT and commissioning workflows.

8. Data quality issues

Bad scaling, incorrect units or missing metadata degrade trust in SCADA and historian data. Fix: Standardize naming and metadata and validate end-to-end data paths.

9. Supply chain delays

Long lead times stall site work and extend visibility and control risks. Fix: Forecast needs early and use a material-management approach that supports annual project demand and critical spare requirements.

10. Reactive budgeting

Deferred lifecycle work increases risk, cost and operational exposure. Fix: Build multi-year capital plans and use risk-based prioritization that accounts for rising material and labor costs.

11. Construction and relocation challenges

Incorrect staking, undocumented utilities, outdated drawings and new safety requirements affect final site performance. Fix: Use updated surveys, established relocation workflows and strong field QA/QC.

How These 11 Issues Become a Lifecycle Management Program

A field SCADA lifecycle management program is more than a set of standards. It is a repeatable playbook that aligns OT, IT, engineering, land, construction and operations. It replaces day-to-day firefighting with structured, predictable delivery and embeds a continuous improvement cycle into every phase of work.

Strong programs include:

• Standard designs and workflows

• Clear governance and ownership

• Consistent commissioning and QA

• Centralized configuration and design version control

• Disciplined land, survey and permitting practices

• Data-quality and cybersecurity standards

• Multi-year capital and asset planning

• Continuous improvement loops

  
  

A continuous improvement cycle is essential. It captures lessons from each project segment, feeds them back into standards and workflows, and drives incremental gains in safety, efficiency and field execution. When improvement becomes routine, program maturity grows naturally over time.

Utilities improve reliability the moment everyone uses the same standards and follows the same process. They improve safety when operators trust what they see and what they control. And they improve delivery when every site moves through a consistent, well-governed lifecycle.

SCADA lifecycle management isn’t just a technical effort. It is a long-term, program-based approach that builds predictability, strengthens compliance and creates a scalable framework as utilities continually update their systems.