Monitoring the operation of Cathodic Protection (CP) systems on
39,000km (22,000 miles) of pipeline through site visits and manual readings is a time consuming and costly task. (Figure 1) Of the 1300 plus
rectifier sites in the subject pipeline network, more than 40 sites are accessible only by helicopter and an additional 15-20 sites can only be accessed in the winter months by snowmachine, snowshoe or helicopter. Not only do the costs for performing this function lead one to investigate alternative solutions, but the philosophy of having corrosion technicians' carry out reactive instead of proactive work reduces their
productivity. Keywords: Remote monitoring unit (RMU), off potential, close interval survey, current interrupter, Ethernet, SCADA system, server, data packet, rectifier influence, global positioning system (GPS)