Telemetry and terminal equipment

Description

Wales and West Utilities Ltd (WWU), is a regulated gas distribution business with around 35 000 km of gas distribution pipelines located within Wales and the South West of England. The intention of this PIN is to inform WWU of the market options available with regard to the supply or development and subsequent supply of pressure monitoring and controlling equipment for gas mains pressures and the supporting software to view and control the pressures remotely in real time. Project aim is to identify an environmentally acceptable solution to assist in the reduction of Shrinkage Gas whilst supporting network pressure stabilisation. WWU is interested in identifying potential providers/developers of such equipment utilising innovative technology to future proof our diverse network infrastructure remote monitoring requirements following the impending retirement of existing 3G/PSTN and ultimately 2G communications technologies. Project may be eligible for NIA funding. See Section VI WWU is looking for supplier(s) to develop (if required) and supply pressure monitoring and controlling equipment for gas mains pressures and the supporting software to view the pressures remotely in real time with the requirement to also control the pressures. The provision should offer an alternative/innovative solution to future proof our diverse network infrastructure remote monitoring requirements following the impending retirement of existing 3G/PSTN and ultimately 2G communications technologies. These technologies should not be offered as a solution. WWU have a rugged and diverse geographical network infrastructure which extends to remote locations where standard telecommunications signals may be compromised. Not all locations will have mains power therefore the offering must provide an environmentally friendly power solution, whilst offering reliability from failure to report. Logging and reporting equipment could be located within (but not limited to) District Governors, acceptable street furniture, low level metal kiosks and customer meter boxes/kiosks. The equipment needs to transmit logging/alert information in real-time, be intrinsically safe and operate on Low Pressure and Medium Pressure Gas networks (0.75mbar to 2 Bar). Consumables and support /maintenance spares are also required. WWU will consider the whole product life cycle including consumable items and end of life disposal. The offered solution should compliment and integrate with existing systems/hardware that is already in use within our network. It is anticipated future logger volumes with be circa 5000 units over a period of time (not single purchase) WWU require a cloud based software solution which can real time report, alert, control and manage the gas pressure data logging equipment to be provided under lot 1. The pressure monitoring data at the extremities of a low pressure network will be used to control the governor pressures at an optimal level. This is to ensure security of supply whilst keeping the average system pressure to a minimum. The solutions must be intrinsically safe. The WWU requirement is for the integration between remote monitoring devices and cloud software to be based upon open standards and be capable of fully secure end to end communication without the need for any proprietary protocols. The cloud software will receive remote data, process and analyse at scale multiple data sources to ascertain the optimal forecast for the next period. This should be communicated back to the remote devices in near real time cycle. Solutions offered may need to be capable of an API link into our SCADA systems. Details will be required in the tender. Offering should provide clear one off and all on-going costs (license/airtime/support etc.)