SynthoScope

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Refining, transport and storage of oil and gas)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
SGN

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 March 2015

01 June 2017

27 months

£189,953

Energy

South East

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, SGN

The objectives of this project are to: Design equipment suitable to carry out internal survey visual inspection of live services and rising mains up to 20 meters in length and up to 2" in diameter. Design a suitable deployment system to safely allow live insertion of the inspection equipment via the customers meter control valve. Provide technical assessment of designs and construction and development of a prototype to carry out field trials. Assess the ability to survey up to 20m of service pipe through a maximum of two elbows and one tee at pressures up to 75mbar. Assess the ability to survey riser ducts. Assess the ability to survey small diameter mains 1. 5" to 3" and 32mm to 63mm up to 5m in length. Produce all relevant documentation, reports, presentations and work instruction seminars to share the learning from this project. The success criteria for the project are to: Design and assessment of both the inspection and launch systemsMaintain gas supplies whilst carrying out inspection on rising mains and servicesCompletion of successful field trials to test the equipment in a variety of scenarios to prove its performance. Compile report detailing all technical findings and field trial outcomesImprove decision making when planning service renewal activitiesIf successful the project will support our risk assessment when carrying out surveys on Network Risers, as well as improving performance and minimising interruption time and inconvenience to the customer when carrying our service replacement activities.

SGN have on going metallic mains and services replacement programme. As part of this we require to renew a high volume of single and multiple services. These renewal can result in prolonged supply interruption and disruption to the customer depending on the method used to renew the supply pipe. SGN are committed to minimising the inconvenience to the customer by choosing the least invasive technique to renew the services and small diameter mains. However, since there is no inspection system that would allow a service to be surveyed live to decide on the best possible solution for renewal, this decision is left to the operative on site. This could result in aborted renewal attempts and extended interruption to the gas supply and unnecessary disruption to the customer. SGN also rely on a visual inspection technique to decide on the requirement for riser renewal works. The majority of network risers are constructed of materials and fittings that are subject to deterioration and ultimately failure. The root cause of failure can take different forms, be it from corrosion, fatigue and stress from thermal expansion, electrical fault conditions, fire or vandalism. The impact of failure varies significantly based on a number of factors, such as where on the riser it has failed, where the riser is within the building, what the building layout is in terms of access and egress, what the likelihood that escaping gas will result in a public reported escape, the occupancy level of the building, the vulnerability of the occupants and other social and environmental factors. Approximately 572 riser supplies were cut off and replaced in 2011/12. In order to avoid the high cost associated with traditional riser replacement, the aim of this project is to evaluate a solution to enhance our visual inspection technique as part of our replacement strategy. This may result in risers which were previously renewed due to the inability to survey, being classed as fit for purpose by improving the robustness of the survey carried out. The aim of this project is to develop a camera system capable of surveying the majority of service pipes including risers and riser ducts in flatted propertyand small diameter mains without interruption to the customer’s gas supply. The process will develop a small diameter inspection camera and launch system capable of being used on a live service pipe or rising main.Note : Project Documents may be available via the ENA Smarter Networks Portal using the Website link above

14/12/18