Learnings

Outcomes

The narrow focus of stage 4A provided the project team with an uncertain route to market strategy for the device. The identification of potential manufacturing partners was postponed and planned beyond 4A to continue to mitigate and develop any perceived design changes.

Commercial activities around the manufacturing of the device were expected to be covered during stage 4B, this stage was designed to provide an insight into some of the actions required for mass production by a manufacturing third party. Design considerations would be dependent on elements such as, order volumes and size of production runs, as well as specific production and assembly plans as set by the manufacturer.

The device began to gain interest and support from BHE (Berkshire Hathaway Energy - previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company) of which NPg is a subsidiary. Attention to the device, its relevance and significance to a wider US issue was piqued, culminating in the development of an important, additional use case to identify wildfire detection and escalation.            

Lessons Learnt

No difficulties were experienced within the first three stages of the project, but a greater understanding of the requirements for stage 4 needed to be established in retrospect. It was envisaged, that the project would take the concept from ‘cradle to grave’ – TRL 1 to 9 in essence, but there were two distinct activities that needed to form the rescope of stage 4. Stage 4A – A technical and commercial feasibility based on DNO deployment scenarios and Stage 4B – Lab based testing to evaluate design options to maximise device lifetime.

The rescoping of Stage 4 required the project team to focus on technical risk mitigation and related design changes. In addition, a route to market strategy and identification of potential manufacturing partners would need to be take place after completion of stage 4. These tasks involving commercial arrangements with potential manufactures were seen as outside the confines of the original plan in terms of both time and budget.