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We all know the old phrase "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's true, but it's actually a surprisingly hard sell. Businesses aren't wired to spend money if they don't see an immediate return.
If you are looking to purchase an RTU that solves problems before they happen, you have to know that their ultimate benefit may never appear on a balance sheet. There's no line item for "costs saved due to catastrophe prevention." However, if you work for an industry that has remote sites in need of constant monitoring, you know how costly a failure or major equipment breakdown can be.
That's why the Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) price is worth the upfront cost. RTUs help to pay for themselves by preventing accidents, saving man-hours, and ensuring you avoid unnecessary fines and fees. So if an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, think of what a pound of prevention will be worth to your bottom line.
Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) are remote monitoring devices programmed to collect information from equipment at remote sites and send it to you or to a master station.
RTUs are pretty simple to explain, but the technology behind them can be sophisticated. RTUs help you by collecting information in a monitoring environment and sharing it with a central control unit.
If you're a large utility or business with remote sites, you'll need multiple terminals to monitor your equipment functionality, as well as environmental data such as heat, humidity, water leakage, fuel, and other important levels. All of those areas need to be watched and reported on in order to benefit your company.
Let's take a look at the process of deciding what RTU is best for your company. You can follow these steps to determine whether it's worth it to invest in an RTU.
First, decide on the best RTU for your company, providing a balance between affordability and durability. An RTU price range can be anywhere from $200-$5,000.
Next, evaluate the features of RTUs that can affect the costs involved and determine what is worth paying for.
The number and combination of discretes, analogs, and control relays you require for proper monitoring of remote and very remote equipment can have the most significant impact on your RTU cost.
Then, determine sites with expensive equipment that are vulnerable. Your concerns may be natural disasters, malfunctioning, environmental problems, sabotage, and even small changes in ambient humidity that can harm your equipment.
Save hundreds of thousands of dollars in prevention by utilizing remote monitoring units.
These problems can be solved if you proactively monitor and address them. Save hundreds of thousands of dollars in prevention by utilizing remote monitoring units.
There are many equipment and asset potential cost savings areas realized when you proactively monitor your operation. Some of these include:
Finally, consider monitoring needs and potential equipment breakdowns in very remote areas. For example, one of our customers who worked in the telecom industry joined a company that didn't have remote monitoring at all of its locations. One day, lightning struck a remote site that had just got up and running.
The strike ruined the rectifiers at the station, which caused the site to run off of batteries. It took 18 hours for anyone to notice. Needless to say, running on low-voltage can be hazardous on the cards that power site switches. In this case, a brand new switch was majorly damaged.
A blown card cost this company a steep $5,000 for a single card replacement.
An RTU monitoring this equipment could have reported the problem to a central master station where operators could have prevented the problem.
We see these kinds of stories all the time. Revenue (plus out-of-pocket replacement cost) goes out of the window because problems aren't caught before they turn catastrophic. An RTU monitoring this equipment could have reported the problem to a central master station where operators could have prevented the problem.
Obviously, when equipment breaks down or problems occur, not everything will be destroyed at once. However, at any given site, for any given problem, you could be looking to spend anywhere from $10,000-$50,000. When your eye is on ROI, it's important to understand what an RTU investment gets you.
Working with a trusted and reliable RTU partner ensures you get more than just equipment. Your $5,000 outlay offers many additional long-term benefits including:
So that's the investment. Here's the return:
An RTU helps you stop wasting valuable windshield time by effectively monitoring and addressing problems. And it provides you with a powerful way to solve problems automatically or make decisions to send engineers for specific concerns. This way you will keep your equipment running without downtime.
So the tangible RTU answer to why the remote terminal unit price is worth the upfront investment is because it will save you potentially thousands of dollars. Also, an RTU, if implemented by the right partner who offers perfect fit customization, training, and technical support, is invaluable.
DPS Telecom has the experience and expertise to help companies who need custom-built RTUs. Our technicians can work with you to find the right RTUs for your specific needs. Reach out and get a quote today!
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