The Opportunity 

The objective of this Opportunity is to shortlist the submissions that best answer the brief, with the aim of attending a presentation day with the EIC Industry Partners, where it can be discussed in greater detail with a technical panel. The EIC welcomes submissions from individual companies or companies working in collaboration with each other.

What is the Problem? 

Distribution network operators (DNOs) maintain and operate extensive underground networks of low voltage (LV) cables. These cables occasionally experience faults due to corrosion, environmental damage or significant surges in demand; making this an increasing concern as the UK works towards netzero (as demand is predicted to rise substantially).

When an outage occurs, the fault needs to be located and a joint bay excavated to enable repairs. There’s a number of methods for locating underground LV faults, which are:
• Cable Avoidance Tool and Genny
• Pavement gas sniffer
• Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) unit
• Ammeter (fluke)
• Polarity test lamps
• Earth Loop Impedance Tester.

In some instances, these methods are inaccurate, leading to increased cost, disruption and safety concerns due to unnecessary excavations. Additionally, joint locations are manually uploaded, which can occasionally lead to errors on network plans.

In some districts, the makeup of HV and LV cables can be similar, making it difficult to distinguish between these cables on visual inspection. This can lead to serious health and safety issues if a HV cable is accidentally opened. Recently, SP Energy Networks (SPEN) conducted work to locate a fault on a major road in their Manweb district. This work required multiple excavations, caused many customers to be off-supply, resulted in extensive traffic disruption and cost more than £25,000. If accurate fault location had been possible, the number of excavations and cost of this work would have been significantly reduced. The reduction in excavation would also have environmental and waste reduction benefits. 

Preferred Output

SP Energy Networks are looking to develop a ‘smart connector’ to be installed in newly made cable joints on their underground LV network to locate faults, provide network operation data and enhance operator safety.

The aim would be to:
• Measure voltage, current, temperature and condition of cables at each ‘smart connector’
• Enable communication between each connector, enabling accurate fault location
• Communicate data to SPEN’s LV Control Room via VisNet, enabling live LV fault mapping
• Be compatible with the LView application
• Incorporate GPS to accurately map connector locations once they are installed
• Indicate the phase of each cable
• Distinguish between HV and LV cables
• Individual recognition per connector to assist with phase identification.

This would enable SPEN to:
• Reduce unnecessary excavations by accurately locating faults immediately
• Increase the accuracy of asset locations on network plans
• Monitor increases in demand and predict where upgrades need to be made.