LV Fault Passage Indicator

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
UKPN London Power Networks plc

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 September 2022

30 June 2023

ENA months

£75,000

Power

London

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, UKPN London Power Networks plc

Project Contact, UK Power Networks

Following an EIC Call for Innovation a supplier has been selected to design and test a LV FPI meeting the UK Power Networks technical specification “ETS 05-6005 Specification for LV Fault Passage Indicator”. The network trial will consist of 100 units. The trial aims to demonstrate that the use of LV FPIs reduce the time to restore customer supplies and hence reducing Customer Minutes Lost (CMLs). For example, the LV FPI could be used with LV circuit breakers (CB) that trip and reclose if no fault is found allowing operational staff to determine which section of the LV circuit is likely to contain the defect that will eventually result in a supply interruption.During the trials the LV control engineer will record the location of LV FPIs and record in the fault report the success of the indication in reducing restoration times. The selected supplier will develop and test a LV FPI. A trial of 100 units will be carried out to prove that they meet the specification and indicate faults correctly. A number of LV circuits that historically perform poorly will be selected and LV FPIs will be installed in the link boxes along each circuit. The reason for the choice of these circuits is to increase the likelihood of faults occurring so that the reliability of the LV FPI can be assessed. The objective of the project is to demonstrate that the LV FPI developed can reliably indicate the passage of fault current and demonstrate that it can be used with LV CB to help identify the faulty section of incipient faults that are restored by the LV CB. The expected outcome is that customers not on the faulty section can have their supplies restored more quickly.

This project will design, manufacture, test and trial a low voltage fault passage indicator (LV FPI) that can meet the requirements of a functional specification. The LV FPI will be placed underneath the cast iron bell housing of a LV link box. When fault current passes through a solid link within the link box the LV FPI will indicate that it has sensed the fault current, but will not indicate for fault current passing through solid links on adjacent phases. This will allow operational staff to isolate a faulty section of underground cable and reduce the time to restore customer supplies.

14/10/22