Network

NETWORK / 21 / FEBRUARY 2019 still high levels of incidents and this problem is growing fast. For instance, the number of 'safety related electrical incidents' reported in 2012/13 was 162, whereas the incidents reported in 2016/17 was up to 1,244. This is an increase of 668 per cent over five years, doubling in the last year alone. Reported strikes to gas pipelines are falling, but still managed to clock up 1,264 in the last year. It is important to remember that these numbers are for 'reported' incidents, so they do not take into account the significant volume of inci - dents not brought to the HSE's attention. Impact of strikes The commercial impact of strikes to asset owners can be significant, with each 'hit' need- ing repair work. This not only costs money, but also means that pipe or cable will need to be removed from service whilst it is repaired. Associated costs to take into consideration also include additional materials, equipment usage and time spent by the asset owners' teams handling enquiries regarding the incident. In a bid to quantify the cost of a utility strike we looked into previous research by the University of Birmingham that calculated the cost as a ratio of indirect and social costs com - pared to the direct cost of repair. The result is 29:1, which means that for every £1,000 of direct cost arising from a pipe or cable strike, the true cost for an asset owner is £29,000. As well as the financial burden of a strike, the damage to brand reputation is also huge for utility companies. Disruption to any service harms customer perception. Finally and most importantly, there are grave safety ramifica - tions to consider. Strikes during digging can cause serious injury, or in the most severe cases, fatalities. In the five year period between 2012 and 2017, the HSE reported 318 injuries and fa- talities caused by underground electrical cable strikes. Again, this is only the number that was reported to the HSE. Conclusion So what can actually be done? A prime step has to be for asset owners to ensure that their pipe and cable networks can be found on resources like LSBUD's portal. This offers a free, easy online search service that quickly provides underground utility mapping records across the UK. By using the service, contrac - tors who previously had to wait up to 28 days to receive asset location data, now get it within minutes. LSBUD currently pro - vides over 10,000 searches every day and this figure grew by 27 per cent last year, so it is vital that all networks are registered with the portal. In addition to avoiding asset strikes, networks gain many oth - er benefits. They receive data on all the searches taking place in and around their assets – giving them a much clearer picture of the vulnerability of their infra - structure – and receive warning alerts when work is planned near sensitive assets. This enables them to proactively help those working around their as - sets with the appropriate advice. Being registered also removes the burden of the network owners having to themselves respond to search requests. Lastly, if every utility reg - isters their assets in this way, every network will be more protected and every worker involved in excavation will be safer. Download the Digging Up Britain report at https://www. linesearchbeforeudig.co.uk/ digging-up-britain-report Electrical engineering company Fundamentals Ltd has entered into a partnership with General Electric (GE). The company has been appointed as channel partner for the monitoring and diagnostics (M&D) portfolio, which is part of the GE Grid Solutions business. The new partnership will see Fundamentals working closely with GE's M&D team. They will offer a wide range of solutions to monitor and manage critical assets on the electrical grid, detect and diagnose issues and provide expert information and services to customers. All GE M&D business for the UK market will now be handled by Fundamentals. GE Power's Grid Automation business development manager, Daniela Stearn, said: "Our portfolio includes solutions for single and multi-gas transformer DGA, enhanced transformer solutions and switchgear monitoring, as well as software and services. Fundamentals has a lot of expertise in these areas and it seemed like an obvious choice of partner. We look forward to working with them moving forwards." Fundamentals sales and marketing manager, Russell Clayman, added: "This new partnership is a huge step in the growth plan of Fundamentals and it complements our existing range of products and services. It means that we can expand our portfolio to offer more comprehensive solutions to our existing clients, start engaging with new clients and, most importantly, create even happier customers." For further information visit www.fundamentalsltd.co.uk or email sales@fundamentalsltd. co.uk I N D U S T RY I N S I G H T Fundamentals partners with GE "In essence, every time a spade or digger bucket hits the ground, there is a significant chance of an asset being hit."

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