Supporting consumers in vulnerable situations
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SHINE (Non-Electric Boiler)
Power outages are a regular occurrence in Great Britian with average annual customer minutes lost in Great Britain range between 31.57 minutes 51.4 minutes depending on the Distribution Network Operator License Area (Statista 2021). This is of course not evenly distributed with outages varying from a few minutes up to more than a week in more extreme circumstances. Similarly single outages can affect a single property or several thousand properties depending on the cause. This project will aim to develop a low-cost user-friendly solution whereby customers in vulnerable situations will still be able to use their gas heated boiler as well as LPG and oil heated boilers in the event of a power outage.
Assessing Energy Impacts via Thermal Analysis
The project aims to use a vehicle-mounted thermal camera and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect heat loss from homes on a city-wide scale. The data will be used to assess the condition of a property regarding its ability to retain heat and provide tailored recommendations addressing insulation problems. This critical first step allows for better targeting of necessary retrofits and offers a scientifically measured alternative or complementary approach to traditional EPC.
Wireless Methane Odorant Detector
This project aims to improve natural gas leak detection for over 3.5 million people with acute smell disorders e.g. anosmia. Traditional methane sensors require high power limiting placement. The legally required odorant (80% tert-butyl mercaptan and 20% dimethyl sulphide) will continue as the UK transitions to hydrogen or blends necessitating re-calibration of detectors.
Our solution is an odorant-based gas detector using a custom ultra-low power electrochemical sensor to measure TBM. These sensors operate for over 10 years on a sealed lithium-ion battery detecting TBM from 20-30ppb (below our smell threshold) up to 1500ppb (20% of the Lower Explosion Level) ensuring early warning of gas leaks.
With no natural sources of TBM false positives are eliminated. The Sensor is ‘hydrogen ready’ maintaining consistent odorant levels during the transition to hydrogen or blends accurately notifying of gas leakage without reconfiguration.
Finding the Hidden Vulnerable
This innovation project proposal is centred on trialling the development of a predictive model to identify customers in vulnerable situations whose heat comes from Cadent delivered gas that are missing out on the protections that the Priority Service Register (PSR) brings because they are “hidden” behind a non-domestic supply contract. The aim of the predictive model would be to aid Cadent to find these customers so that it can be ensured that they receive the support that they need in the event of an interruption to supply.