22.

11 Cost of Cathodic Protection

Cost of cathodic protection system consists of initial establishment costs, operational

costs, and maintenance and repair costs. Initial establishment costs consist of the cost of the
project and planning phase, costs of materials and equipment, installation costs, and the profit
of the contractor. In impressed current cathodic protection systems, initial establishment costs
are equal to operational costs of about 10 to 15 years, and thus are higher compared to
sacrificial anode cathodic protection systems.

The major criterion determining the costs is the current needed for cathodic
protection. A low cathodic protection current translares to low initial establishment and
operational costs. However, the relation between these variables is not linear. Initial
establishment costs per 1 Ampere current are higher for small T/R units with low current
capacities than for large T/R units with higher current capacities. Among the items in initial
establishment costs, the cost of materials and equipment and equipment is proportional with
the current needed for cathodic protection, while the others are fixes costs. Cost of unit
current intensity is very high for systems with current capacity of lower than 5 A, which
decreases with increasing current capacity up to 20 A, while not much change in costs occur
for units that have current capacities above 20 A. Costs per A. year also decrease with
increasing cathodic protection service life.

It is also important to note that the alternative current received from the network that
is converted to direct current to be used in cathodic protection systems does not have a fixed
price as well. Costs of the alternative current received from the electricity network depends
on the efficiency of the T/R unit, potential of the produced direct current, and cost of
electricity power per kW.hour.

Costs can be decreased by reducing the current needed for cathodic protection. This
can be done by increasing the coating quality, reducing the initial establishment and operation
costs. A quality coating also results in a small attenuation coefficient, which translates to
longer distances of pipeline that can be cathodically protected from one location, leading to a
reduction in the number of T/R units needed, reducing the initial establishment costs per 1 km
of pipeline. However, expenses for the coating must be balanced with the reduced costs of
reduced current intensity, since the relation is not linear. Thus, usually a medium level
coating quality would result in the most reduced costs.
 In impressed current cathodic protection systems, anodic bed costs increase with
increasing number of anodes. However, anodic bed resistance also decreases with increasing
number of anodes, allowing the use of a lower capacity T/R unit to produce the cathodic
protection current of the same intensity. Thus, there is an optimum for the number of anodes
to be installed that accounts for the most economy, balancing out both the costs of the anodic
beds and the T/R units.