In collaboration with NGN, and as part of a recent NIA project [NGN_NIA_239], Renda Systems Limited has successfully developed (to TRL 4) a highly cost-effective pressure sensor system, designed to be incorporated at low cost into the PE Purge Tee assembly. 

Next steps and this project proposal

This next phase of work seeks to take the learning and PoC pressure sensor system developed to roll out the developed technology in live field trials, to establish the long-term credibility and capability of this new technology approach to information gathering in the real-world setting.

Benefits

The benefits for this technology have been measured against incumbent datalogger technology to gauge advantage. The datalogger technology in use across NGN has a known base cost to install and operate [noting this varies depending on datalogger vendor].

A number of assumptions have been made to determine any benefit such as:

1.      The installation cost remains the same for either the datalogger or new innovative pressure sensor [noting the project aims to gain further benefit by reducing install costs further].

2.      The new technology battery life will be twice that of existing datalogger capability [and therefore recuing the opex costs to visit to replace batteries]

3.      The unit cost for the new technology will be better than half that of existing technologies

4.      The data costs for an IoT solution are lower than standard 2G / 3G based datalogger systems

Further benefits are anticipated due to the simplified design making the installation opportunities for this technology more adaptable and agile than exists currently This unlocks further opportunities to support unplanned and planned network operations to provide greater insight into network conditions than would ordinarily be the case.

This project is aiming to create sensor technology sub £200 per unit and to identify the more effective deployment model.