The number of electrical cables being inserted within old ‘abandoned’ steel gas pipes in commercial dwellings is on an upward trending curve. When gas engineers are tasked to perform a ‘live/dead check’, they have no means of knowing whether an electrical cable, or other unknown elements are present in the gas pipe they are operating on, and more importantly if a cable is present, if it is energised or not. The risk of undertaking this operation is significant and potentially dangerous for the field operatives, who are susceptible of being electrocuted in the presence of an energised electrical cable.
Objectives
The project objectives will be delivered within the 5 stages of the project.
Stage 1 – Feasibility assessment and Lab Testing
Work to adapt and develop the larger sensor array for the current Mage cable tester to measure electromagnetic fields, through iron, steel, and PE gas pipes from 2” up to 12”.
Lab test a range of methods to measure gas pressurisation in the gas pipes and test a range of techniques to discriminate between water pipes and gas pipes, using the following methods:
- Ultrasonic measurement for gas pressurisation
- Acoustic Measurement
- Proton precession magnetometry for gas pressurization
Stage 2 – Development of Initial Prototype
Develop the initial prototype for field trial testing with a testing schedule.
Stage 3 – Prototype Field Trial
Undertake field trials to prove the reliability of the too and iteratively improve the prototype design.
Stage 4 - Manufacturing and Commercialization Roadmap
Commercialisation road map – produce a road map for transforming the final prototype design to a commercialised product consisting of final design for manufacture.
Stage 5 - BAU Business Case
Using the findings from the trial and commercialization roadmap to build a business as usual business case for deployment.
Learnings
Outcomes
Following initial field trials, to gather data to enable Mage Controls to refine the devices for near real time indication to the user, the devices were sent back to Mage by NGN.
Mage have since completed the necessary technical works and are in the process of manufacturing the remaining devices to ensure NGN receives the 10 devices as per the project plan. Due to supply chain and manufacturing issues, the remaining devices are expected to be passed to NGN in early April 2022.
Following initial successful field trials to gather data and capture user feedback, further field trials are planned to take place throughout Spring 2022 to enable NGN to fully assess suitability for full implementation into business-as-usual. The additional field trials will fully assess the cost benefit analysis of deploying the technology at a network level and ensure that all safety precautions are fully assessed prior to wider rollout.
Overall, this project is considered to be successful following development of 10 ‘prototype’ hand tools that have the capacity to detect ‘live’ cables or gas within iron, steel and PE gas pipes ideally up to 12” with 100% accuracy. Next steps will include further validating of the instrument accuracy in live field scenarios. The outputs of which will support the development of a business case including an updated cost benefit analysis to progress the devices through the implementation stage.
Lessons Learnt
Throughout project delivery, on a number of occasions Mage Control suffered delays as a result of staff sickness & leavers. Due to the bespoke nature of the technology been developed, this resulted in a further delay with hiring new staff with appropriate technical expertise, moving forward a more thorough contingency plan should be agreed to resolve similar staffing issues and prevent delays.
There was a lack of available pipe samples during the feasibility stage which also delayed the project by around 3.5 months, these were initially to be provided at project kick-off.
Further delays were encountered as a result of global supply chain issues for the electrical components within the device, as the devices were prototypes, the volume of components ordered was reasonably low. If the devices are to be bulk manufactured for full implementation across NGN, it is expected that a larger volume of components would need to be ordered from a more reliable supply chain partner, likely to therefore result is lesser timeline delays for the manufacturing process.
