Improved Grid Reliability & Resilience

Until now, local utilities have had to rely on historical data to inform maintenance priorities and actions. With Grid Analytics’ ability to provide accurate insights into pre-failure components combined with network segment criticality, this changes everything, allowing a more informed evidence-based prioritisation effort.

The result is a more sustainable network that delivers reliability and resilience for utilities and their customers.

Improved Worker Safety

Current visual inspections require workers to climb, or be elevated, to allow visual inspection of each tower. The ability to conduct inspection by exception and daytime resolution of identified issues pre-failure, minimises the need for high risk inspection or maintenance actions.

Improved Optimisation of Operational Resources and Costs

Network maintenance needs are often constrained by budgets and staffing levels, with visual inspection schedules often limited to 30% or even 20% of the network annually. The Grid Analytics solution enables inspection and/or maintenance by exception, allowing optimisation of limited resources, whilst improving metrics for reliability and service levels.

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The preferred mode for utilising the Grid Analytics solution for Transmission Networks is a helicopter mounted form factor. With a typical daily ability to fly an average of 300-400kms, Grid Analytics makes short work of a utility inspection. The opportunity is to optimise the inspection process and reduce the need for multiple field team members to visually inspect each individual tower and component.

Improved Asset Management & Quality Assurance

Asset management is a continually evolving practice, with industry standards helping to inform methodologies used by mature infrastructure owners/operators. Current mechanisms for measuring asset life use manufacturers and field obtained data (visual inspections). New industry standards such as ISO-55000 encourage the use of condition data as an input into strategic asset management tools.

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The use of Grid Analytics solutions supports the gathering of evidence to augment current asset health measurement techniques. New data sources and scientific evidence, support improved decision making from strategic asset management tools whether they be project or asset focussed.

Repair efforts and new infrastructure builds can also benefit from a Grid Analytics evaluation. This can support the review of repair actions to ensure that the component has been properly repaired. In implementing new electricity infrastructure, the ability to review the build can provide a QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) function.

A good example of this occurred when a subcontractor just completed the build of a Transmission Network segment for a utility, but the segment upon commissioning was attributed to intermittent outages. A review revealed 10 components in the segment were emitting RF signals - an extremely high number for such a short segment. Upon further detailed evaluation, the problem was determined to be inadequate torque levels for a clamping mechanism. The work process documentation was updated and upon a follow-up review, determined that the repair actions were done correctly and no partial discharge-based RF emissions were detected, eliminating the intermittent outages.

Sustainability Ready

The use of renewable energy generation mechanisms is increasing by both primary power generators and consumers, and demand profiles are evolving due to the change in where this takes place, subsequently increasing pressure on the electricity grid.

Having a more resilient grid will support the injection of energy from sustainable sources and accommodate the changing demand profiles.

Bushfire Risk Mitigation

The root cause of most pole fires is the breakdown of insulating properties of overhead equipment and the resultant current leakage. Unfortunately, this current leakage is usually invisible and void of a heat signature – making it almost impossible to detect using standard visual and IR inspections.

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The good news? Grid Analytics’ RF emission technology is uniquely able to detect all kinds of invisible partial discharge – including leakage current. Identifying the locations of equipment exhibiting these conditions gives utilities an opportunity to change-out, or wash, the affected components, minimising the potential of pole fires.

Learn more about the applied benefits of our technology in our case study.