A trial of the latest fibre optic sensing technology is being used by Openreach to detect and prevent costly water and gas leaks, in an initial six-month pilot underway in Hounslow, west London.
The broadband provider has joined in partnership with Arcadis, Thames Water, and Cadent to use new technology, developed by tech company FiberSense, which uses Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and turns spare fibre optic cables in Openreach’s network into early warning sensors that can ‘hear’ and accurately pin-point problems across surrounding gas and water networks.
The project, funded by Funded by the Transport for London Lane Rental Scheme, aims to detect problems early to allow intervention and reduce the disruption of emergency or unplanned street works, which currently cost the capital an estimated £750m every year in terms of economic and social impact.
Early detection will allow utilities to schedule repair work outside of busy hours or at the weekend.
The DAS technology detects changes in the light signal used in fibre optic cables caused by vibrations which could be a blockage or leak in surrounding networks, or a developer digging in the wrong place.
Machine learning helps to locate the exact point of the vibration and train the system to separate background noise – such as a passing car or underground train – from specific events like a leak.
Thames Water worked with Arcadis to explore how the economics of fibre sensing could be brought in line with that needed for a scale deployment.
They established that the concept of one sensing network was capable of providing real-time data for multiple utilities, allowing costs to be shared, and further savings would come from making use of Openreach’s current extensive fibre network, rather than having to install a dedicated sensing fibre network.
If the trial is successful, the consortium will look to expand with a London-wide pilot.
The extensive coverage of Openreach’s full fibre network creates the potential for the technology to be rolled out across the UK to help businesses in other sectors, including water, gas, telecoms and electricity – deal with critical challenges to their networks.
Sam Bright, Innovation Manager for Thames Water said: “Openreach were the obvious choice of telecoms partner for this project, and have the national reach we wanted.
“This model could be useful to all UK water companies and the same goes for the gas and telecoms providers around the country.”
