Pre-Fix will develop and demonstrate a Common Disturbance Information Platform (C-DIP), allowing equipment from different vendors to be utilised for pre-fault detection and more accurate fault location on HV overhead line and underground cable circuits. The outputs from this project are expected to deliver game-changing performance benefits for the operation of distribution systems across GB in RIIO-ED2 and beyond.

Benefits

Developing a scaleable pre-fault capability will enable WPD to remove costs from fault management functions, these savings are significant would be passed down to customers. In addition, this capability would help WPD mitigate power cuts before they  happen, providing a significant and measurable improvement to customer experience.  This vision is quantified in the following sections.

The ability to locate and repair or mitigate HV defects before they evolve into a protection operation will create tangible benefits relating to avoided customer disruption and also more efficient deployment of operational staff. It is also expected that this capability could create benefit during Storm response. This is because the ability to pinpoint overhead line damage from central locations may help co-ordinate resource allocation during storm response.

Because the engineering performance of HV pre-fault systems has not yet been demonstrated at scale, there is not any credible knowledge regarding it’s likely financial performance. To overcome this in the financial justification for this project a financial sensitivity analysis was completed to understand where the breakeven point lies for different pre-fault system costs and performance outcomes. This break-even analysis suggested that there is at least £3.4M of OPEX saving available per year associated with a mature HV pre-fault capability and between £2M to £8M of IIS savings per year depending on the rate of successful exploitation of results.