Arc-Aid is trialling new fast-acting sensors on overhead lines that could allow our control engineers to detect faults faster, improve efficiency and get power supplies back on quickly and safely.
What is the project about?
To serve our 20m customers in London, the South and South East of England, we distribute energy through more than 46,000km of overhead electricity lines, more than enough to wrap around the earth. Most of these overhead lines are in rural areas like Suffolk or the South and cover very long distances, while in urban areas much of the electricity network is buried underground.
While our network is 99.9% reliable, with such a large number of cables high above the ground electricity ‘faults’ sometimes happen. This is particularly possible during extreme weather where, for example, high winds can, on rare occasions, cause cables to break or cause poles to topple.
Arc-aid aims to help our network control engineers identify and detect these faults much faster by installing innovative new sensors which alert our engineers should a fault occur.
How we’re doing it
This new fault indicator – the Metrysense 5000 – can use a variety of ways to communicate (such as radio) with software that will be integrated into our state-of-the-art network management system. Should a fault occur on either our 11kV or 33kV overhead networks, the devices can send a signal with the location and timing of the fault to our control team. With that information at hand, our control staff can dispatch a field team to quickly and safely repair the fault – getting the power back on faster for any affected customers in that area.
Fixing faults faster can also help to improve safety in general – the quicker power supplies can be securely restored, the better.
The devices, produced by technology experts Metrycom Communications, are effective on overhead wires, which have a legacy device known as an ‘arc suppression coil’ (ASC) fitted, which gives the project title its “Arc” in “Arc-Aid”. Arc suppression coils were previously fitted to help us keep power flowing for our customers, but as technology has advanced we no longer fit them.
What makes it innovative
The Metrysense 5000 devices are a first-of-their-kind to be trialled in England. As part of the trial, we will work with Metrycom Communications to make sure our control software can securely and effectively integrate with the software used by the fault indicators.
Before we test the devices on our network, we’ll work with Strathclyde University’s Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC) to test the devices in conditions that replicate the real electricity network.
We’ll also train our field engineers on how to install these units for the first time and our control staff to view and understand the results.
What we’re learning
Arc-Aid aims to prove that the devices can help to shorten the duration of power cuts (which we measure in aggregated scores for ‘Customer Minutes Lost’, or ‘CMLs’) and understand whether they can help us to create a more reliable, robust and efficient network.
Throughout the project, we will assess the real benefits delivered by the Metrysense 5000 devices and analyse whether they could provide benefits for our customers if rolled out more widely across our network.
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