Wide-Area Instrumentation of Power Networks using Existing Infrastructure

This project will conduct the substantial industrial R&D required to prototype and test a novel distributed photonic sensing technology for the power and energy industries. The unique sensing technology, developed by Synaptec Ltd, can provide wide-area monitoring of both electrical and mechanical parameters (e.g. voltage, current, temperature, vibration) from across the electrical grid from central locations such as transmission substations. By piggy-backing on pre-installed optical fibre on power networks, it will allow network operators to leverage existing infrastructure to improve the robustness of network protection, monitoring and control functions in order to bring on more distributed and renewable generation and reduce the risk and impact of faults or outages on the electrical system. This 36-month project will allow Synaptec to fully develop, validate and prototype a full suite of sensor systems (through both hardware and software engineering) based on this innovative technology platform in partnership with the UK's leading industrial, research and metrological institutions, and to prepare for commercial pilot installations with UK and EU electricity network operators.