Condition Assessment of Long Interconnected Cable Systems (CALICS)

Started

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
National Grid Electricity Transmission

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 December 2023

30 April 2026

ENA months

£597,440

Power

London

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, National Grid Electricity Transmission

The aforementioned issues of spatial resolution and range are rooted in the fact that the whole optical fibre (single mode) is used as the sensor for conventional DTS monitoring solutions. The proposed solution is to combine polarisation maintaining (PM) fibre with single mode (SM) fibre to improve both the spatial resolution and range. The PM section can be strategically placed at critical locations to provide accurate spot measurements, while the SM fibre would be used for transmitting the measured signals. Since the SM fibre is no longer used for sensing, the range can be significantly increased, potentially several thousand kilometres. The project is scoped into 6 work streams (WS).WS1: Review of the state-of-the-artWS2: Lab-based test-bed development for assessment and investigation of the proposed sensing technologiesWS3: Validation of the proposed sensing technologies in both on land and in a marine environmentWS4: Investigate the feasibility of Edge Computing in processing raw data and generating information suitable for asset managementWS5: Detailed design and requirements definition for the proposed sensing technologiesWS6: Recommendation to National Grid The objective of this project is to validate the proposed method for monitoring cable asset conditions. The key aspects are:Develop a laboratory based test-bed that can sufficiently test and assess the proposed solutionValidate the proposed solution both on land and in a marine environmentAssess the feasibility of incorporating Edge Computing into the data generation and process streamsProduction of detailed design requirement for the proposed solution to enable BAU adoption

Cable systems are a critical and integral part of the power system. Effective monitoring of their health condition is paramount for ensuring system availability, reliability and resilience. The conventional DTS (Distributed Temperature Sensing) method has limitations in both spatial resolution and range for monitoring cable systems. This project proposes to investigate a novel method that combines polarisation maintaining fibre with single mode fibre to address these issues. In addition, the project would also investigate how Edge Computing may be used to improve the data quality while reducing the need for data storage.

02/10/24