Field Team Support Tool

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution plc (SHEPD)

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 April 2015

01 October 2017

30 months

£460,000

Power

Scotland

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution plc (SHEPD)

1) To determine the user interface to be used for Field staff to interact with the data sources. 2) Demonstrate that data can be transferred between the tablet and the server in a standardised and secure format that is immune to external interference. 3) Evaluate the scalability of the system, being able to record and display many thousands of reports. The system should show that it is able to support the full lifecycle of each report. 4) Identify whether or not the system is able to maintain data integrity. 5) Confirm that data security is maintained. 6) Demonstrate the benefits for a full scale rollout, and the costs that would be involved. 1) Evaluate the usability of the tablet. 2) Show back end applications being updated from the tablet, and the new data passed back to the tablet and displayed. 3) Demonstrate that the system can cope with the required level of traffic to and from the CIM. 4) Demonstrate the security of the device, and the ability to delete the device from server control, and delete access to the application remotely.

Field Team staff (linesmen, jointers & fitters) have a large number of documents covering safety, processes, and procedures that they need to have access to. Geographic and network maps of the area that they are working on are also required. Currently all of this documentation is printed and carried in the staff vehicles. The documentation can be unwieldy to keep up to date, and may result in important safety considerations being missed for the day’s tasks. During storm situations Line Scouts are often not fully versed in the intricacies of the Overhead Line Network. They have difficulty in clearly identifying damaged assets, both the type and location on the network. It can be very difficult to complete paper forms during a storm, and also can take a significant amount of time to get the reports back to the control centre so that they can be analysed and the correctly equipped repair team sent out to repair the damage. A prior IFI project was undertaken with the same supplier, OGS, whereby SSEPD looked at providing field staff with a tablet device that can hold the necessary documentation, can be updated in real time, and provides a visual display of the power network, overlaid on to a geographic map, or through augmented reality techniques, on live images displayed on screen. This project will further develop the tablet device so that it can be used to report task progress and issues back to supervisors and managers, and to ask for advice and further documentation if necessary. During storm situations details of issues, including photos, can be sent back to Storm Control so that managers can make informed decisions. Changes to the work programme can be communicated to the field staff via the device. The project will use a standards based Common Information Model (CIM) to allow the different sources of data held within the company to be fed out to the tablet, and for data sent from the tablet to update the data sources.Note : Project Documents may be available via the ENA Smarter Networks Portal using the Website link above

14/08/18