Cadent have a license obligation to maintain pressures to the ECV of a property.
Design minimum pressure for low pressure systems shall be no lower than:
-19mbar for systems designed pre January 1996
-20.75 mbar for systems designed post December 1995
Low gas pressures are evident when the gas supply to a customer’s property fails to meet the minimum pressure required to keep their appliances functioning correctly. There are numerous causes for low pressure and the impact of low pressures often results in a customer’s gas supply being interrupted until a resolution has been identified and resolved.
It is important to minimize the length of an interruption to our customers by identifying a solution that can be installed promptly with minimal disruption and allow the work to resolve the root cause of the poor pressure to be as a planned event rather than unplanned.
Under certain situations, ServiBoost can provide a temporary solution to instantaneous pressure drops and so reduce emergency ‘no gas’ situations. Cadent estimate that in the last financial year 3,500 recorded instances of poor pressure would present the opportunity to fit a Serviboost unit. This then allows planning and scheduling time to re-configure the service at the customer’s convenience.
In order to address these poor pressure problems, Cadent has worked with Synthotech on two previous phases to develop the ServiBoost unit as detailed below :
ServiBoost Phase 1, completed under NIA-NGG0057 (commenced October 2015) successfully delivering:
• Feasibility Study of the proposed system including construction of a simple simulation rig.
• Design, Development and Manufacture of a working prototype
• Testing and data capture of how the booster performs on a simulated rig.
ServiBoost Phase 2, completed under NIA-NGGD-0098 (commenced May 2017), successfully delivering :
• Design and Development of a working prototype (pre-commercialised)
• Manufacture of fully functioning Serviboost units to permit field trials to be undertaken
• Determine Installation challenges
• Undertake trials – Laboratory, Simulated and ‘Live’ Trials
• Development of data folders to provide a flight plan for commercialisation
• Data collection – Performance, Efficiency, Function of the Installed Serviboost Unit
Objectives
The objectives of this third and final phase of the project are :-
• Build and test the final version of the ServiBoost units
• Complete the ATEX testing and certification of the units
• High temperature testing and reporting
Learnings
Outcomes
The project has delivered the following key output:
· A TRL 9 design Serviboost unit which has passed the following testing requirements:
o Salt spray test
o Chemical resistance test
o EMC test
o General Product safety / Machinery directive assessment
o ATEX test
o RoHs, WEEE and batteries assessment
o High temperature testing (Building Regulations)
o Declaration of conformity certification
· In addition to the testing Cadent have undertaken a further 20 field trials to prove suitability of use of the updated units
· Cadent has now signed off the Serviboost units for use across all its networks, ready for BAU implementation
Lessons Learnt
· The project has identified the difficulty of a project that has a significant reliance on 3rd party testing. The lead time involved with the testing can have a significant impact on the delivery of the project and early identification of the critical path for testing should be undertaken to ensure delivery to schedule.
· The project has identified that Serviboost units can be used as a temporary measure to solve poor pressure issues for customers and the trial has demonstrated that a working model can be implemented to provide both benefits to Cadent and our customers.
· As part of the project the TRL level has increased from TRL 7 to a market ready product, which can be implemented by all Network Licensees.
· The field trial period also identified the possibility of further work investigating the safe operating parameters of the Serviboost Units. This could be a possible future development which would require further testing; however it would allow the Serviboost units to be utilized in more poor pressure scenarios, and thus drive further benefits.
