Developing an Intelligent Gas Grid to prevent network issues becoming serious
Gas Distribution Network
We helped a Gas Distribution Network take early action on issues such as water ingress and gas escapes to reduce costs and improve planning.
Net present value of benefits from reduced repair costs, assuming GB-wide rollout of the solution before 2035.
Per year saved for each network planning team manager, by avoiding manual inspection of network pressure data.
Background
Gas distributors typically only become aware of network issues, such as gas escapes and blockages, when reported by customers. While this Gas Distribution Network collects a wealth of operational data for network management, potential issues are currently identified either through absolute thresholds or manual inspection, so early indicators of such issues are being missed.
“Deployment of our anomaly-detection tool unlocks new capability for the Gas Distribution Network to manage their network safely and efficiently, focusing engineer expertise on the decisions that matter most.”
Andrew Glennie, Customer Director
Faculty
Solution
Our AI solution detects abnormal behaviour in network pressures at 15-minute intervals, across thousands of loggers. Accounting for factors such as weather, the system identifies pressure patterns that are early indicators of issues, including water ingress and leaks, together with their potential materiality. Alerts are then flagged to network planners through a front-end dashboard for immediate prioritisation and resolution, before events escalate.
Impact
Our solution enables engineers to tackle network issues earlier, meaning they are less serious and costly to fix. For example, the solution can identify signals of water ingress up to a month ahead, which if actioned could avoid millions in repair cost and hours of service interruption.
“We worked with Faculty because of their unique experience in developing bespoke AI tools. In our collaboration they are developing some of the core IP that will be crucial to the future success of our business and enabling our vision. This is critical for us and we wouldn’t have trusted anyone else.”