Designed for South Texas Conditions
South Texas is one of the most lightning-prone regions in the country, and unprotected electrical and control equipment is especially vulnerable. Mercer Controls designs and installs lightning protection solutions specifically for the realities of Texas infrastructure.
Our systems help protect critical equipment from damage and costly downtime caused by lightning strikes and electrical surges.
Protecting Critical Equipment
Lightning and surge events can damage meters, instrumentation, PLCs, VFDs, radios, and other sensitive electronics. Mercer Controls installs protection measures such as:
- Lightning arresters and surge protection devices
- Equipment grounding improvements
- Protection for power, control, and communication circuits
These measures reduce the risk of equipment failure and extend system life.
How Lightning Actually Gets Into Your System
A direct hit on the panel is the rare case. Most of the damage arrives indirectly, riding in on the long conductors that run into and out of every water and wastewater site.
- The incoming power feed. A surge on the service travels straight into the panel and takes out power supplies, PLCs, VFDs and starters.
- Instrument and control wiring. The 4-20 mA loops running out to a level transducer, a flow meter or a chlorine analyser behave like antennas. A strike hundreds of feet away can induce enough voltage to destroy the transmitter at one end and the analog input at the other.
- The antenna and coax. At most tank and well sites the radio mast is the tallest metal object there is. Surge comes down the coax into the radio, and from the radio into whatever it is wired to.
- Differences in ground potential. Two pieces of equipment bonded to separate grounds can sit at very different voltages during a strike, and the difference finds its way through the signal wiring between them.
That is why protection has to cover power, signal and communication circuits together. Protecting one path and leaving the others open simply changes which piece of equipment fails.
What Operators Usually See After a Storm
Strike damage is often not obvious. The station keeps running while one instrument quietly stops telling the truth:
- A radio or cellular modem that stopped reporting to SCADA after a storm
- A level transducer reading zero, reading full, or stuck on one number
- A flow meter showing no flow while the pump is plainly running
- A PLC that no longer communicates, or an analog input reading nonsense
- A VFD faulted and locked out
- A chlorine analyser that will not hold calibration
- Nuisance alarms that started the week of a storm and never stopped
- A panel that is simply dead
If any of that started the morning after weather, it is worth a call. See repairs and replacements and 24/7 emergency service.
Surge Protection Wears Out
Surge protective devices are consumable. They take hits, they degrade, and eventually they stop protecting — usually without anything on the outside of the panel telling you so. Grounds corrode and connections loosen in the same way.
Checking arresters, grounds and bonding is part of a preventive maintenance visit, and the right time to do it is before storm season rather than after. We can add protection to panels we did not build, the same as the ones we did.
Built for Reliability
Lightning protection is an investment in system reliability. By protecting critical components, Mercer Controls helps cities avoid expensive repairs, extended outages, and repeated equipment damage.
To add lightning protection to your facility or control system, contact us today.
📞 (361) 782-7168