It Worked for 20 Years Until It Didn’t

We hear it all the time:  “That system’s been running for 20 years.”  And that is true right up until the day it is not.

Control systems rarely fail with a clean warning. They fail when a pump is needed the most, when a storm event hits, when staffing is light, or when replacement parts are weeks or months out.

At Britton Electronics and Automation, we are usually called after the failure when the conversation has already turned into damage control.

Control Systems Do Not Age Gracefully

Mechanical equipment usually gives signs before it fails. Control systems often do not.

Failures show up as drives faulting under load with no prior history, PLCs locking up after a routine power cycle, communications dropping intermittently and then disappearing entirely, or time drift creating alarms that do not align with what operators see in the field.

On paper, the system still works. In reality, it is operating with no margin left.

 Obsolete Does Not Mean Broken Until It Does

One of the biggest risks in older systems is not failure itself. It is recovery.

When a drive, PLC, or HMI fails and the model is discontinued, firmware is unavailable, or the spare on the shelf does not match what is installed, troubleshooting quickly turns into redesign under pressure.  Temporary fixes become permanent. Costs rise. Downtime stretches longer than expected.

Growth Exposes Old Assumptions

Communities grow. Demand increases. Systems get pushed harder.

What does not grow along with them includes motor service factor, drive current capacity, cabinet cooling capacity, and physical space for expansion.

Many systems that ran reliably for years reach a breaking point because the original design margins are gone.

What BEA Recommends Instead

We focus on identifying single points of failure, verifying real world motor and drive loading, standardizing on supported hardware, improving SCADA visibility, and phasing improvements to match budgets and operational realities.

If your control system has worked for 20 years, that is not a reason to leave it alone. It is a reason to review it before it reminds you why.