Utility Week

28 | 21ST - 27TH FEBRUARY 2020 | UTILITY WEEK 5G will benefi t the utility sector After years of hype, promise and more recently politi- cal controversy surrounding Huawei's restricted role in the UK, 5G networks are now here and are being promoted as transformative technology that will change the way business works. But there's often confusion and misunderstanding over what 5G really is, and what it means for utility companies. 5G will bring increasingly reliable, fl uid, and fl exible connectivity and play a key role in making the smart grid a reality. In particular it will provide enhanced mobile broadband services at typical speeds of over 100Mbit/s; greater density of devices, with a goal of 1 million devices per sq km and ultra-low latency com- munications, aiming to enable data to move across the network in a few milliseconds or less. ese will make a real diff erence to the implementation of smart grid applications on a large scale. Over the past decade, we've seen the development of smart metering, demand-side management, e-mobility, integrated distributed generation and storage, as well as the integration of large-scale renewable energy systems, energy trading, dynamic pricing, and substation automation. ese developments required the integra- tion of advanced ICT (information and communications technologies) with utility sector-specifi c technologies expert annotates them. Annotations go into training AI algorithms for automatic detection: the more annota- tions made, the more automated and intelligent the software becomes." Discussions with UK distribution network operators are ongoing with a view to carrying out pilots in the coming months. e growth of edge computing, which transfers computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed, in the process reducing network bandwidth requirements and latency, could ramp-up the capabilities of drones in future by giving them the ability to process and analyse data for themselves. Combine that with advanced AI, we could see the advent of autonomous smart drones able to inspect and detect defects or malfunctions without human assistance. Today's drones are typically used for specifi c short- range tasks, but greater eff iciencies could be achieved if they were allowed to fl y over much longer distances that take them out of sight of a human operator. Such "beyond visual line of sight" fl ights currently require permission from the Civil Aviation Authority and can only occur in specifi c, restricted cases. However, a three-year government-backed trial is under way, coordinated by the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) and involving aviation specialists Callen-Lenz, the CAA, Wales & West Utilities, National Grid Gas Transmission, and Northern Powergrid, is aiming to develop a regularised framework for out-of-sight drone fl ights in the UK. If implemented, it could lower costs and increase availability compared with traditional asset monitoring techniques. Tony Knowles, project support at the EIC tells Flex: "Wider cost studies covering a variety of remote inspection tasks and generic drone types sug- gest a cost saving of 50-75 per cent can be expected over a manned helicopter… Inspection drones will be easier to deploy, an advantage potentially more signifi cant after storms or other ad hoc inspection tasks. Operating windows can be extended to include evenings or potentially night, a feature that could aid infra-red analysis." e fi rst phase of the trial, completed at the end of 2019, evaluated diff erent technologies and techniques for fl ight operations on gas and electricity network assets. ese included tests of satellite, cellular and mesh communications, the integration of novel ground centring technologies, and risk management and opera- tional parameters. A report concluded that no signifi cant operational issues were found that would present a problem and the next phase sees drones carry out specifi c energy industry-related tasks in 'normal' non-segregated airspace. Out-of-sight droning signals an exciting new frontier in drone use. W h y 5 G c a n u n l o c k t h e s m a r t g r i d 5G will bring increasingly reliable, fl uid, and fl exible connectivity and play a key role in making the smart grid a reality, says May Li. The ELIOS 2 drone from Flyability Stephen Cousins is a freelance journalist

• Cover