07 July 2004 00:00 CSI - for electricity cables

In the glamorous world of TV’s CSI, a crack team of investigators solve Las Vegas crimes through the science of forensics.

In the more down to earth surroundings of the Network Development Centre at Central Networks’ Tipton office, a crack team of investigators slices, dices and investigates the causes of electricity cable and kit failures.

Led by Richard Summers and Jonathan Knapper, the team is called in when underground cables, overhead wires or cable joints fail. Their job is to find out why and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Greg Price, Asset Standards Manager (West) at Central Networks, said: “When cables or joints fail it’s very important for us to find out what went wrong in the hope that we can stop it happening again.

“Our field teams will bring the failed joints or cable in and then we have to set about finding the problem.

“We aim to investigate all unexplained cable and joint failures and sometimes the cables can be pretty big, which creates problems of its own.

“But, once we’ve got them, we can usually find out precisely what caused the problem, take the appropriate corrective action and hopefully make sure that we can help improve supply to our customers.”

Problems can be caused by a variety of factors and can even take years to develop.

“We quite regularly find cables that have been slightly damaged by someone working on the road. After what can be a couple of years, you find that water gets into the cable and, obviously enough, water and electricity doesn’t mix,” said Greg.

“Of course, by then, it’s too late to find out who damaged the cable in the first place.”

Other problems can be caused by simple wear and tear on cables and even by damage to overhead lines caused by trees.

One former team member, Danny Simmonds, has been responsible for creating a working museum at the Centre, with joints, cables and other curios going back to the early 20th-century when Britain was electrified for the first time.

“Some of the equipment we have in service is over 80-years-old and it’s still working well,” said Greg.

“But, over the last decade, we’ve introduced new polymeric technology to replace paper insulated cables and it’ll be interesting to see if the new technology last as long or as well as the previous technology.”

Ends
Notes to editors:
•Central Networks is the new name for Midlands Electricity and East Midlands Electricity. The company brings power to 4.8 million customers across the East and West Midlands through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables and via almost 97,000 substations;
•Central Networks covers an area from the Peak District in the north to the suburbs of Bristol in the south, and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast.

For more information and pictures contact:
Jonathan Smith on 024 7642 5741
Out of hours call 024 7642 4000 and ask to speak to the duty press officer