The battering the energy and water networks suffered at the end of last year at the hands of storms Desmond, Eva and Frank served as a reminder that, despite utilities’ best intentions, there will be circumstances in which customers will be cut off and face disruption.
However, away from the worst the winter weather has to offer, the electricity, gas and water companies aim to keep the essential services for modern life running. They are duty bound by the regulators to do so, and incur penalties if their service standards fall too low.
It is here that CNIguard, with its Sensorcore system, aims to provide a helping hand – keeping the customers content and the utilities receiving rewards from the regulators.
With offices in the UK and the USA, CNIguard is planning to expand into markets either side of the Atlantic with its smart sensoring system.
Chief executive Edward Klinger emphasises the differences between his company’s offering and those of bigger name rivals.
“We distinguish between sensors – of which there are many on the market, and it is usually high-quality stuff from the likes of Siemens and Honeywell – and sensoring,” he says.
“The latter is the act of using the sensors in combination with software in order to deliver a certain outcome or action.”
This in effect means that rather than simply detecting a problem, the Sensorcore system will then act automatically – for example, shutting off power lines if they have been struck by a foreign object, such as a tree or a crane.
Subtler issues would also be detected and give the distribution network operators the opportunity to prevent customer outages – important when a proportion of their revenue is at stake for the number of customer outages and customer minutes lost (see box). This could involve monitoring the degree of power line sag and even the tilt of the pole holding the cables.
“You can monitor to see how much tilt there is, or if the pole has rotted beyond safe levels,” Klinger adds. “This will allow companies to manage costs and conduct ‘just in time’ maintenance to improve service levels.”
And it’s not only in the day-to-day running and maintenance aspect where Klinger says CNIguard has been helping utilities in the USA, the UK and Europe (see box), but also in tackling vandalism and theft.
This is what you would expect from a company with CNIguard’s “high-security background”, which has seen it work closely with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure and employ staff with experience at GCHQ.
“The extension into a more operational environment is a very natural one. In a utility you are looking after security and this is closely aligned with safety issues, environmental issues and quality of service,” Klinger says.
The smart sensoring system can be used to monitor “remote and hostile” assets, which may be attractive targets to vandals, thieves and even terrorists, according to the chief executive.
The critical point of the sensoring system – as alluded to earlier – is not the sensors themselves. Klinger explains other sensors that have been tried and installed can have “99 per cent false alarm rates”, resulting in unnecessary call-outs, or the alerts even being ignored and being attributed to faulty equipment.
“It removes any credibility from the signal you’re getting,” he adds, meaning that despite monitoring taking place, the asset might not be as secure as it could be.
The Sensorcore system, with its software-hardware combination, is able to detect which triggers are “acts which are genuine” – such as vibrations from passing traffic or the weather – and those that require a response.
These sensors can also be specified to enable flood warnings and other safety and environmental monitoring.
Bring able to assess accurately what is happening on the energy and water networks, to identify where work needs to be done, and to automatically shut down the system and alert maintenance teams to any safety issues is crucial for the utilities. The ability to limit disruption when it occurs, and even to prevent it in the first place, will ensure delivery of a better service to customers, and a better regulatory performance, too.
Rewards and penalties for DNOs
Electricity Distribution Annual Report for 2010-11 (source: Ofgem)
Ofgem’s interruption incentive scheme has symmetric annual rewards and penalties depending on each DNO’s performance against their targets for the number of customers interrupted per 100 customers (CI) and the number of customer minutes lost (CML).
The proportion of revenue exposed under the scheme is 1.2 per cent for CI and 1.8 per cent for CML.
Therefore, if a DNO is able to reduce CI and CML through proactive monitoring and rapid response to issues, this will help to improve its balance sheet by avoiding penalties, while consumers will get a better service.
Utility Week Live: The Innovation Zone
Organised in association with the Energy Innovation Centre, this popular feature will showcase the latest game-changing innovations and solutions for the gas and electricity industries from up and coming SMEs including CNIguard. It will also feature technical pitches and live product demonstrations given directly to the people that need them.