Cadent Asset Management Software Case Study.

Local Energy

Cadent is the UK’s largest gas distribution network, managing more than 80,000 miles of pipes, and transporting gas to 11 million customers. One of the biggest challenges that gas companies such as Cadent now face is the shift from a centralised grid system to more localised energy production.

"Since the 1960’s, the UK has sourced large supplies of gas and electricity from a few specific places such as power stations and the North Sea, which is then distributed all over the country," highlights Waine. "This is changing dramatically as energy is now being generated on a much smaller and local scale. With more local wind farms and solar panels in people’s homes, we are moving away from energy being generated centrally and distributed nationally. Instead, energy is now produced locally and needs to be distributed locally too. The challenge for us is that we are designed for a centralised world."

In a centralised grid system, the energy flows in one direction; from the supplier to the consumer. However, on a local scale, any excess energy is traded with neighbours or sold back to the grid. Energy not only needs to flow from the supplier to the consumer, but also back again.

"The physics don’t work unless you start changing the system. Scaling that up to the hundreds of local areas within the Cadent network and it quickly becomes a significant technical, commercial, regulatory and financial challenge," says Waine. "So what does our network need to look like for the next 20 years? How do we keep the network going while also enabling the move to hydrogen?"

Understanding the Problem

Finding the answers to these questions is a daunting task, requiring extensive research, data management and software expertise. Cadent turned to OCC for assistance. "I was aware of the previous work OCC had done in this sector and we wanted to embed a software approach into the project right from the very beginning," says Waine.

As with all project work, OCC began by undertaking an in-depth analysis of the project requirements. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, along with a project scoping exercise. This involved reviewing datasets and information available from open data projects. A series of workshops with key Cadent stakeholders were also run. Combined, these initiatives helped to define the problem from a top-level perspective, and to establish the key features, modelling requirements and data displays that Cadent needed from an asset management tool.

Asset Management Tool Prototype

From the findings of the literature review, OCC developed a prototype of a gas-focused asset management tool. Unlike other tools which primarily collate and display data, OCC’s solution incorporated a strategic element to help Cadent gain valuable insights into the data as well.

Users can specify the requirements and the factors which will shape decisions. The software will visually display the available options, and uses Sankey diagrams to show the best strategy. This helps users to understand factors such as:

• Risks
• Which assets require upgrading or replacing
• Where they should be investing resources, time and money

"The tool gathers and filters data from many sources which allows us to really understand what datasets are important," explains Waine. "It then provides some structure around linking that data to decisions and strategic planning which has been really powerful."

The complex algorithms within the software are complemented with a clear, intuitive and aesthetic user interface. This not only makes the tool easy to use but has helped Cadent to raise the visibility of upcoming challenges and their potential solutions internally.

"The user interface and design made it easy to sell the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ back into the business," highlights Waine. "It’s helped us move our thinking and discussions forward to the next phase, which is deciding on a strategy."