Network Engineering and Equipment Group newsletter - Issue 3

EUA | September 2013 | Issue 3

NETWORK NEWS Latest news and developments for companies providing engineering services and products to the supply chain.

Welcome‌ Yesterday we held a very interesting meeting with National Grid who shared with members how RIIO is working for them.

National Grid were extremely generous with their time and we had an hour and a half slot with Richard Court (Business plan), Steven Vallender/Tom Neal (Innovation), Steve Murray/Duncan Willey (how RIIO is working in practice). We were grateful to former Chairman, Richard Stone, for bringing the subject of Achilles back onto the agenda. His recap of the presentation EUA gave to Achilles back in 2011 certainly raised some good debate. We will be taking these issues forward with them and will update you in due course.

Download the presentations here. Minutes will be circulated in due course.

Close to 20 companies attended the meeting which is fantastic!

For the December meeting we are hoping to secure another of the Gas Networks for a similar discussion. We also have a session on Shale gas planned in.

We aim to tackle any subject you would like to see covered, therefore please ensure you let us know if you have a specific topic you would like to add to the agenda or any guest speakers that might be of interest to you. These meetings are designed to ensure you get the maximum benefit out of giving up your time to attend so please speak up!

It was good to see you yesterday and I hope to see many more new faces at the next meeting (we’ll keep you informed).

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Next Meeting: W/C 9 December (tbc) Camden House, Kenilworth Contact Ana Ray ana@eua.org.uk to register for this meeting.

Next Event: Utility Metering 26 September Birmingham Find out more

Upcoming EUA Events: Utility Asset Management 30 October London Find out more Gas 2013 13 November London Find out more Utility Regulation 5 December London

Andy Vine Chairman, EUA Network Engineering & Equipment Group Sales Manager, Crane Building Services and Utilities

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Movers & Shakers

Sacha Deshmukh has been appointed Chief Executive of the Smart Meter Central Delivery Body (CDB), the new organisation responsible for consumer engagement during the nationwide rollout of smart meters.

Deshmukh is an expert in consumer issues and marketing. He is a Board Trustee of Citizens Advice England & Wales and a non-executive Director of Consumer Futures. Until summer 2012 he was Senior Partner of the Engine Group, the UK’s largest independent marketing services group.

We have been fortunate in securing Sacha Desmukh to deliver one of his first public addresses at this year’s Utility Metering Seminar in September.

The CDB’s remit is to build consumer confidence in the installation of smart meters, build consumer awareness and understanding of how to use smart meters and the information obtained from them, increase consumer willingness to change their behaviours and reduce energy consumption. The body will be key in a successful roll-out programme.

Skills & Training Government Funding secured for Energy and Efficiency Industrial Partnership An employer-led partnership set up to secure the future workforce for the UK's energy and utility industries will receive Government funding.

The Energy and Efficiency Industrial Partnership will fill an emerging training and skills void in the gas, water, renewables, waste management and power industries.

It receives the funding as part of the Government's Employer Ownership of Skills (EOS) pilot and is supported by Energy & Utility Skills (EU Skills), Capita Talent Partnerships and Asset Skills, and driven by National Grid - among 67 employers from across the sector.

Collectively, they will match the Government's input with an additional contribution, channelled into addressing an ageing workforce, a lack of future-proof skills and youth unemployment.

The partnership is expected to deliver around 70,000 learning opportunities, via apprenticeships and traineeships.

An estimated 50 per cent of current employees will have left the sector by 2023, due to its ageing workforce. To plug that gap, 208,000 new people will be required within 10 years and the Partnership plans to put long-term solutions in place to reverse this trend.

Developing a skills strategy for the smart metering rollout programme The National Skills Academy for Power’s (Skills Academy) Metering Network continues to introduce an employer-led strategic approach towards competence, training and assessment for the smart metering industry. The Network is working closely with the Electricity and Gas Distribution Network Operators to establish the resourcing implications for the smart meter rollout, whilst work on up-skilling the existing workforce has continued. The big six energy suppliers are preparing detailed resourcing plans prior to the start of the rollout in Q4, 2015.

A key requirement for Smart Meter installers is they will have to have dual-fuel capability, know how to commission the communications for the smart meter, pair up the inhome display device (IHD) and explain how it works to the customer. This requires a much broader set of technical and softer skills than is normally expected from a meter installer. All of these skills are a requirement of full job competence for Smart Meter Installer (Dual Fuel) and will be developed through EU Skills Smart Meter Installation Apprenticeship.

See more about the metering network and the skills strategy being developed for the Smart Metering rollout programme here

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Industry Talk GISG Gas Industry Safety Week 21st – 25th October Not to be confused with Gas Safe Register’s Gas Safety Week (this week) which is aimed at building consumer and public awareness around gas safety, GISG are organising a Gas Industry Safety Week in October which will be an opportunity for industry to showcase the variety of gas safety initiatives being worked on. The week will feature a Parliamentary launch reception for GISG members and invited guests which takes place 4-6pm on Tuesday 22nd October in the Churchill Room, House of Commons. Confirmed speakers include the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, Steve Brown, Senior Technical Advisor, Ofgem, Mike Potter, Head of Specialised Industries Divisions, Gas and Pipelines Unit, HSE, and a guest speaker from Gas Safe Register. At the reception members will have an opportunity to display some their internal gas safety initiatives.

Built Environment Trade Missions UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is organising five focused outward Trade Missions to China, the USA, Taiwan, India and South Korea and invites UK companies operating in the sectors listed below and looking to increase their export activity should apply: • Architecture • Facilities management • Infrastructure and environmental, waste and water services • Innovative and green building systems and products • Master planning / Planning • Project design/ Project management • Smart devices for the built environment (energy efficiency, low carbon, integrated intelligent solutions) • Urban regeneration Click here to view the brochure. To qualify, businesses must be established within the UK and selling or marketing a British product or service. Eligibility will be assessed by UKTI.

Industry Talk

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Smart Metering Update Despite deployment of smart meters being put back a year, to start in September 2015, EUA has had a particularly busy year in its external work around smart metering and it has certainly not meant any let up in programme activity. EUA welcomed the delay as it will allow the detailed technical specification, security and certification criteria to be fully in place, allow for better preparation for training of the large number of installers that will be required and give suitable lead times to smart metering systems manufacturers.

As the smart metering programme moves between the ‘foundation phase’ to the mandated rollout in 2015, a joint Energy UK/DECC group – Transition Working Group - has been set up to manage the transference of governance from DECC to the Smart Energy Code Panel. EUA has secured representation on the majority of these groups.

The necessary shared infrastructure for smart meters to operate across competing energy suppliers will be provided by the Data and Communications Company (DCC) and its service providers.

Capita has been named as the preferred bidder for the DCC contract, worth an estimated £175m over 12 years, which will give it responsibility for creating a secure two-way communications system between smart meters and a central communications hub.

Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will provide the communications infrastructure which will be separated into three regions: northern GB including Scotland (worth an estimated £625m over 15 years this is expected to go to Arqiva), central GB including Wales and southern GB (worth an estimated £1.5bn over 15 years, will likely go to Telefonica).

A single Data Service Provider (DSP) will manage the large volumes of transactional data that flows through between smart meters and utilities and CGI, previously known as Logica, is the preferred bidder for this eight-year, £75m contract.

If you are interested in learning any more about EUA’s involvement in the smart meter programme or just some further information please contact either Gary Cottrell or Caroline Taylor at EUA.

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Market News Radius Systems acquires AEON Radius Systems has acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Aeon Group Holdings Ltd. Aeon a global manufacturers and suppliers of valves to the fire protection, gas, water and oil exploration and transportation sectors, operates from three facilities in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Poland and the UK. Radius Systems was purchased by the POLYPLASTIC Group in February this year and this is the second acquisition – it acquired the Subterra brand in June.

Morrison Utility Services and Amec awarded five year contract extension by Wales & West Utilities Morrison Utility Services and AMEC have been awarded a five-year extension to the Western Gas Alliance (WGA) mains replacement contract by Wales & West Utilities (WWU). The contract extension, worth £40 million per year, will run until 2018 and will replace 420km of gas mains each year and complete 40,000 customer gas connections.

Develop Training Launch New Trades and Energy Skills Centre Develop Training will celebrate the launch of its new Trades and Energy Skills Centre in Derby on Thursday 19th September. The new Trades and Energy Skills Centre, which has multiskilling at its core, will provide people with a one-stop venue where they can continuously develop their basic to advanced professional qualifications for working with water, gas and electrics in domestic and industrial environments.

As the sector heads into recovery, Develop expects industry’s requirements of engineers to evolve towards multi-skilling. In a drive to improve productivity it anticipates that organisations will increasingly seek those engineers that are qualified to carry out several disciplines of utilities engineering.

The Trades and Energy Skills Centre will be officially opened at 5.30pm on 19 September by Chris Bielby MBE, followed by an ‘Installer Update’ networking event. Visitors are welcome to attend either session and can register for the event by calling Michelle Burton on 0800 876 6708. Those attending will be able to take a tour of the new facility, speak to industry experts and review their training needs with a free qualification check.

GPS Pipe Powers Snowdonian Hydro GPS PE Pipe Systems has added to its portfolio of hydro-electric projects with the supply of 2km of black plastic piping to Dragon Hydro’s Cadair Idris hydro scheme.

The scheme is being constructed on farmland in the heart of the Snowdonia National Park and involves construction of two intakes high up on the mountainside to extract water from two tributaries of the Afon Cadair, along with a weir to ensure that at least half of the flow remains in the river. The intakes will deliver water into the 2km high performance polyethylene (HPPE) penstock which will travel down to a purpose-built power house where it will enter the turbine at 15 bar to generate electricity for the grid. The water will then be released back into the river downstream. GPS supplied the pipe in 10m lengths to address the access and manoeuvrability challenges in the Snowdonian terrain and provided fortnightly deliveries to manage storage limitations on the mountainside. Construction is scheduled for completion in early September.

6 And Finally, 10….technologies to be found in your future car 6 The automotive industry is constantly bringing us new technologies, whether for safety, entertainment, usefulness or simply for pure innovation. We take a look at ten things likely to be incorporated into your future car:

1.Head-up display/Augmented Reality With HUD, or Head Up Display, information is projected to your windscreen. This technology comes straight from fighter jets and is likely to become much more common in cars as it’s so much safer - you don't have to shift focus and your eyes are can stay on the road . Going one step further is Augmented Reality (AR), which identifies external objects in front of the driver and overlays information on top of what a driver is seeing in real life. For example, an AR GPS system would highlight the actual lane you need to be in and show you where you need to turn down the road without you ever having to take your eyes off the road.

3D instrumentation is also receiving a lot of attention with new systems that work without the need for glasses (‘autostereoscopic’ technology). It would allow your car’s dials and gauges to ‘pop out’ of the dashboard to create a three-dimensional virtual information display.

2. Vehicle to Vehicle Technology Car manufacturers and Governments are looking very seriously at Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication, or V2V. It works by using wireless signals to send information back and forth between cars about their location, speed and direction and has very obvious safety implications. But the technology is going further than this. Vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, or V2I, is being developed, which allows vehicles to communicate with things like road signs or traffic signals to highlight safety issues and traffic information

7 3. Internet connected cars and infotainment The connected car is the third fastest growing technological area after phones and tablets and the app-culture is infiltrating the car industry. The next step up is a full infotainment system that typically integrates a car’s audio, navigation, communication, and climate systems controlled through a touch screen, and/or voice commands.

4. Predictive suspension Predictive suspension technology uses stereo camera sensors to identify uneven road surfaces approaching the car and retune the active suspension so that rough road surfaces are compensated for effectively providing the most comfortable ride as possible. Other developments might include allowing the car to bank into corners like a bike and maybe drop to the ground when parking as an anti- theft feature.

5. Self-driving car Truly self-driving cars are probably closer to being a reality than you might think. By using lasers, radars and cameras, the cars can analyse and process information about their surroundings much faster than a human. In California and Nevada, Google engineers have already tested self-driving cars on public roads.

Self-driving cars have the potential to eliminate the cause of 95 percent of today's accidents: human error.

6. Self-Parking Car This piece of technology is mostly used for parallel parking although some manufacturers are working on technology that park in horizontal spaces.

"Autonomous Parking" engages sensors and cameras attached to the system, activating steering, brakes and navigation controls allowing the driver to rely completely on the vehicle. It detects pedestrians, cars, animals, road edges and barriers on the road in order to support smooth parking.

8 7. Enhanced Night Vision Night vision systems increase a vehicle driver's perception and seeing distance in darkness or poor weather beyond the reach of the vehicle's headlights.

They are currently offered as optional extra on certain premium vehicles. An infrared camera positioned in the grill, can detect objects up to 300 meters distance and send the driver a warning on the control display.

8. Airbags That Help Stop Cars Mercedes is experimenting with airbags that deploy from underneath the car to help stop a vehicle before a crash. They are part of the overall active safety system and deploy when sensors determine that an impact is inevitable. The bags have a friction coating that helps slow the car down and can double the stopping power of the vehicle. The bags also lift the vehicle which counters the car's dipping motion during hard braking, improves bumper-to-bumper contact and helps prevent passengers from sliding under seat belts during a collision.

9. Gesture & Voice recognition Trials are underway to develop and refine gesture recognition in cars which means you won’t have to take your gaze away from the road to locate a button on the dash or your car’s heater controls. Instead, you’ll simply be able to swipe your hand left or right to go back or skip a track on your CD player, or turn an imaginary knob clockwise or anti-clockwise to adjust interior temperature.

Voice recognition is very close to being mainstream in vehicles, with the technology already standard on most smartphones.

10. Digital mirrors More and more development is being put into onboard cameras, and the technology could be set to replace the conventional rear-view mirror. The benefit of using cameras to see behind you is that you don’t have a blind spot – providing a wide enough lens or multiple cameras are used. The introduction of this technology could help reduce minor car park bumps, as well as more serious accidents, such as when changing lanes on the motorway.

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Your Community Aeon International Ltd | Amey | AMEC Group Limited | AVK UK Ltd | Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions | Bureau Veritas | Carillion Utility Services | Clancy Docwra Limited | Crane Ltd t/a WASK | Drain Center | Fast Flow Group Ltd | Fiorentini UK Limited | Fulcrum | Fusion Provida Limited | Future Energy Group | Gas Measurement Instruments Ltd | George Fischer Sales Limited | GL Noble Denton | GPS PE Pipe Systems | J Murphy & Sons | Morland Utilities Ltd | Morrison Utility Services | National Grid | Northern Energy Connections Ltd | Northern Gas Networks Ltd | P N Daly Limited | PLCS Limited | Radius Systems Ltd | SARCO Stopper Ltd | Synthotech Special Products Limited | Veolia Water Outsourcing Ltd