Project Summary
This project brings forward 3 of 12 asset monitoring use cases studied
during the Discovery phase, which at maturity would collectively deliver an
estimated 22 million GBP (NPV over 10 years) value to Networks and customers
through a combination of cost savings by replacing manual ground and aerial
monitoring, and cost avoidance through increased risk awareness. A switch away
from manual monitoring will also lower emissions associated with Operation &
Maintenance activities. This is closely aligned with the Data and Digitalisation
challenge's aims to improve asset visibility and increase monitoring, efficiency,
reliability, security, and resiliency of networks.
The project will investigate the development of a
remote, automated nationwide land and asset motion solution based on the use of
SAR satellite imagery and different InSAR analysis techniques. The project will
investigate how the accuracy and concentration of land and asset motion data
points can be improved and integrated into NGET's asset monitoring systems. The
project will also investigate the development of a remote, automated, nationwide
network monitoring solution based on the use of sub meter resolution optical
imagery. The solution will look at risk and change issues in general and
specifically unauthorized construction and storage of building materials. The
project will advance understanding of the defects/changes experienced by the
network, their size, frequency, and risk priority and test EO detection likelihood,
with a view to integration into NGET's asset monitoring systems.
Innovation Justification
Problem - Increasing network reliability requires increased awareness of the
encroachments, risks and changes such and subsidence in and around network
infrastructure in a digital format that can be mapped to the network and/or
combined with other network data. Increased awareness in practice means more
frequent monitoring of our networks BUT current manual ground and aerial based
monitoring techniques are time consuming, costly, do not always result in digital
outputs and have high CO2 footprints.
Existing applications - Satellite data technology is widely used for meteorology
where it provides essential data to model weather forecast and wider effects of
climate change. In military applications satellite data provides essential data to
plan operations and support teams on the ground increasing visibility of the
battlefield and reduce safety risks. The use of SAR satellite imagery for the smallscale monitoring of land motion is gaining traction in the mining sector, but largescale monitoring applications of the movement of both land and assets remains
innovative. Similarly, while there is increasing interest in the use of satellite
imagery and data for remote monitoring of risks and changes around critical
infrastructure, solutions are not mature and investment in innovation is required to
meet user needs. More applications exist for deforestation measurement,
greenhouse gas emission detection and other.
There are several existing techniques that use the high-resolution multispectral
satellite imaging to produce 3D-steorepic image which is used to detect the
vegetation growth/height around transmission and distribution lines. This
information support vegetation control decision making while reducing a need for
manual survey with helicopters or ground teams.
Existing Research - Satellite data are widely used by the Oil and Gas industry,
past NIA projects Satellite Infrastructure Monitoring (NIA_SGN0150) and High
Altitude Aerial Surveillance (NIA_NGGT0064) developed by gas networks
demonstrated a strong benefit case for using aerial and satellite data analysis. It
8/17/22, 4:54 PM Print application - Innovation Funding Service
https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/management/competition/1164/application/10037439/print 6/16
was timely to evaluate opportunities for electrical network monitoring applications
created by the availability of exponentially growing volumes of both commercial
and open-source satellite data from satellite constellations such as the Sentinels
(Copernicus), Planet, Satellogic, Iceye, Capella Space, Airbus, Maxar and others
now and in the future. Work done during Discovery highlighted the fast progress
that has been made by solution providers with solutions around Wildfire and
Vegetation monitoring deemed to be 'business as usual' and therefore not
appropriate for further SIF Alpha phase funding.
Research Gap - While Wildfire and Vegetation network monitoring are deemed to
be business as usual, the use of satellites to monitor a broader range of
encroachments, risks and changes around networks and network assets is not
freely available nor are the analytics mature. Likewise, there is no remote
monitoring system that can provide network operators with network wide data on
uplift, subsidence, or landslides in and around assets or of the motion of assets
themselves, for example sinking towers.
Innovative solutions to be developed - The project will investigate the
development of innovative remote, automated, nationwide:
land and asset motion solution based on the use of SAR satellite imagery and
different InSAR analysis techniques- network monitoring solution for detection
of unauthorized construction and storage of building materials and other
risks/changes based on the use of sub meter resolution optical imagery and
risk/change detection algorithms
Benefits
Networks will benefit from fast, accurate, auditable, and more frequent monitoring
and risk assessment across their entire networks and better infrastructure
development planning decisions. The proposed technology applications being
developed as part of this Alpha application can be, with minimal adoption efforts,
utilised on electrical, gas, water, and other networks in the UK and overseas. In
fact, a recent report by the EU Space Agency (EUSPA) value the global EO value
added services market for Utilities at 76 million Euro and predict it to double by
2031.
Government Priorities - The SIF aims to fund network innovation that will
contribute to achieving Net Zero rapidly and at lowest cost to consumers. The
specific SIF scope areas defined by Ofgem are aligned to these aims. This project
meets the scope of the competition in following key areas:
1."How to improve the visibility of infrastructure and assets, for instance new
digital infrastructure or novel uses of senor and communications technologies"
8/17/22, 4:54 PM Print application - Innovation Funding Service
https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/management/competition/1164/application/10037439/print 7/16
The proposed solution will improve the visibility of the infrastructure and assets as
follows:
a.increase the frequency, accuracy and auditability of change and risk monitoring
surveys compared to current ground-based methods.
b.provide network operators with detailed historical and near real time information
on the movement of the land in and around their assets and of the movement of
assets themselves across entire networks compared to current ground-based
methods
2."How novel uses of data and digital platforms can significantly improve network
planning, modelling and forecasting capabilities." The analytics and outputs of the
proposed satellite derived solution can be fed into network operator data lakes
and workflows, used alone, or combined with other data streams to better
understand changes and risks, to deliver better planning and resource allocation.
Environmental Impact - The ground or aerial based inspections have a GHG
emissions footprint which would be reduced drastically if network monitoring were
fully or partially switched to satellite-based monitoring. The emissions that could
be avoided by a switch to satellite monitoring by NGET, NGGT and UK network
operators in general will be estimated as part of Alpha phase updated cost benefit
analysis. Many consumers will welcome a reduction in the noise pollution caused
by aerial monitoring mainly performed by helicopters . End Consumers will
benefit from higher grid reliability, lower land and asset motion related O&M and
emergency pylon replacement costs. The general cost benefit analysis identified
that proposed applications can deliver up to £22m NPV value against business as
usual, mainly through reduce cost from emergency asset replacement and
reduced cost for manual inspections. How these savings can be shared with end
consumers will be investigated in the Alpha phase.
Impacts and benefits
Networks will benefit from fast, accurate, auditable, and more frequent monitoring and risk assessment across their entire networks and better infrastructure development planning decisions. The proposed technology applications developed as part of this Alpha project can be, with minimal adoption efforts, utilised on electrical, gas, water, and other networks in the UK and overseas. In fact, a recent report by the EU Space Agency (EUSPA) value the global EO value added services market for Utilities at 76 million Euro yearly and predict it to double by 2031.
The general cost benefit analysis for the project identified that the cost reductions in operating the networks and to the wider energy system could be as much as £22m NPV value across the three use cases studies in this trial. This is subject to further work being carried out to test the asset monitoring solutions alongside the different existing methods used by NGET and refine the level to which satellites can work alongside these methods to replace more manual inspections methods such as walkovers and helicopter surveys. The solution also provides a major benefit in increasing the risk awareness of issues on network. This is achieved through the increased frequency and scale of data gathering and enhanced analytics that can be performed and allows for more efficient and timely interventions (e.g. reducing the number of detailed surveys required of tower foundations by identifying the most at risk towers and reducing the likelihood of requiring costly asset replacement.
The emergency replacement and the subsequent required construction activities have the potential for a significant impact on energy consumers and their premises; whereby construction activities could require considerable land usage and potential disruption through excavation activities. Furthermore, to complete the emergency asset replacements, unplanned system access/outages will be required to complete the works. If this were to occur on major circuits/constrained network boundaries, there would be significant reductions in network availability and potentially very significant constraint management costs for NGESO and reduced network reliability for consumers. Therefore, the satellite assessments of land motion will enable a targeted, risk-based approach to limit the potential land disruption & supply interruptions due to emergency tower replacements.
The ground or aerial based inspections have a GHG emissions footprint which would be reduced if network monitoring were partially switched to satellite-based monitoring. The emissions that could be avoided by a switch to satellite monitoring by NGET, NGGT and UK network operators . Many consumers will welcome a reduction in the noise pollution caused by aerial monitoring mainly performed by helicopters.
One new benefit that was identified during the project through engagement with internal NGET team was minimising unnecessary disruption to stakeholders by reducing the frequency of requiring access to third party land. Using satellite solutions to monitor asset where possible, will demonstrate to land owners with NGET assets that a suite of options is being explored before the need the access third party land. The next steps of exploring this benefit futher is to bring the land and acquisition team onto the project team to look into how best these satellite solutions can be used whilst still taking privacy considerations into account.
The SIF aims to fund network innovation that will contribute to achieving Net Zero rapidly and at lowest cost to consumers. The specific SIF scope areas defined by Ofgem are aligned to these aims. This project meets the scope of the competition in following key areas: 1."How to improve the visibility of infrastructure and assets, for instance new digital infrastructure or novel uses of senor and communications technologies" The proposed solution will improve the visibility of the infrastructure and assets as follows: 1) increase the frequency, accuracy and auditability of change and risk monitoring surveys compared to current ground-based methods. 2) provide network operators with detailed historical and near real time information on the movement of the land in and around their assets and of the movement of assets themselves across entire networks compared to current ground-based methods 2."How novel uses of data and digital platforms can significantly improve network planning, modelling and forecasting capabilities." The analytics and outputs of the proposed satellite derived solution can be fed into network operator data lakes and workflows, used alone, or combined with other data streams to better understand changes and risks, to deliver better planning and resource allocation.
