SF6 leak ID &repair monitoring

About

Rawwater is an SME specialising in innovative leak and defect sealing. We have been working with National Grid Electricity Transmission to pilot and start to roll out our leak sealing technology M3CollarCast to seal SF6 leaks on ancillary pipework connections of Gas Insulated Switchgear. M3CollarCast is designed to be applied while the asset is still in service so no need for an outage. The means leaks can be sealed without having to wait for the next planned outage, and without disrupting the electricity supply across the UK. One of the biggest challenges is locating leaks and assessing performance of repairs. Data used to identify leaks can lag behind the leak starting which means it can be undetected for some time.Siemens Energy have an IIoT product known as Sensgear, that continuously monitors the density, pressure and temperature levels of Gas Insulated Switchgear. The data collected by the system is securely transmitted and stored within the cloud enabling easy access to operators from remote locations. Sophisticated models provide information on deteriorating plant conditions, including estimations of lost gas quantities and predicted time to failure. These models can be used to focus action such as leak surveys followed by repairs.Rawwater and Siemens Energy believe there is an innovation opportunity to link these two products together to more rapidly identify leaks, complete a repair and then monitor the repairs performance. Rawwater's seals are reversible so should the repair start to deteriorate years into the future, it can be reapplied to extend the asset life.