The aim of this project is to reduce the cost of LV monitoring to make it economically viable to fit LV monitoring devices in large volumes to the secondary substations.The cost of an existing LV monitoring system using figures obtained from the NTVV project is approximately £3,600 per substationThis project aims to procure the basic communications unit for a target price in the region of £30 to £40.However, the biggest cost associated with the present methodology is the current measurement device e.g. 24 for a six way feeder pillar. Taking both these into account, it is intended that the project will deliver complete systems which can be procured for a figure in the region of £500 with the potential to lower costs if economies of scale can be achieved by purchasing the current measuring devices in sufficiently large quantities.The data parameters delivered will be similar to those obtained in the New Thames Valley Vision project. We expect a lower level of accuracy but still sufficiently accurate to determine the benefits which low cost monitoring of a large section of LV network can bring in terms of customer service, network planning and operational decisions.
The data will also assist us in reporting asset health, criticality and monetised risk in line with the Common Methodology required by Ofgem.
Demand clusters could be identified from the data together with the potential to identify pre-fault indications allowing early intervention.