The Micro Weather Station from Intellisense Systems will provide key weather data to predict and prevent operational failures for National Grid in the UK.
EXFO – the communications industry’s test, monitoring and analytics experts – announced that they will support a pilot program for National Grid in the United Kingdom. The global communication service provider will provide monitoring for its ongoing fiber network health assessment for one of the largest publicly-listed utilities on Earth. EXFO will measure, analyze, and report results from an 80-kilometer (49.7-mile) span of the National Grid network that is in one of the UK’s most challenging areas for weather. To support this effort, Intellisense Systems is providing its durable, portable, and highly accurate Micro Weather Station (MWS®) to monitor the environmental impact on power lines, gas lines, and fiber optic cables. This project will not only keep the grid operational and save millions in preventative maintenance, but it will also enable the UK’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
As part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), National Grid has deployed a fiber optic operational telecommunications network across the country’s electricity transmission infrastructure to carry critical information for secure and efficient utility operations. The system has been in service for over 30 years, but its age and the environmental impact of extreme weather make it difficult to detect faults and potential failures. Improved operational communications networks will be critical for control and protection systems in the UK’s transition from fossil fuel-based power plants to renewable energy.
As part of this pilot program, EXFO will also collect data from multiple Micro Weather Stations to measure the environmental impact of wind, humidity, precipitation, and other weather-related parameters. The MWS has been thoroughly field-tested and proven to accurately collect weather data over prolonged deployments, and it can remain operational through extreme weather events like hurricanes. EXFO’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based analytics solution will then amalgamate and correlate data from both the fiber optic network and weather system inputs to dynamically predict, detect, and prevent outages in the network that might otherwise go unnoticed.
National Grid anticipates that EXFO’s proactive monitoring and fault detection will deliver savings as high as £2.9 million ($3.5 million USD) from failure avoidance and extending the lifespan of the existing network. Deployment of both EXPO’s test equipment alongside the Micro Weather Stations from Intellisense started in October 2022 and will continue through 2023.
“EXFO is pleased to support a national-level provider like the National Grid,” said Wim te Niet, Vice President, EMEA, EXFO. “Our remote, proactive fiber testing and monitoring solution provides complete visibility across the fiber network, with capabilities to predict and detect potential outages in real time. Coupled with weather sensing equipment [like the MWS], we can help ensure network reliability so that the lights stay on for everyone.”