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RoCiT

National Grid is the largest privately owned, independent transmission company in the world and one of the top 100 companies in the UK.

It owns and operates the high-voltage electricity transmission system that carries power from generators to local distributors across England and Wales. It also owns and operates transmission links to Scotland and France and plays a vital role in enabling the wholesale trade of electricity on behalf of the electricity market.

OCC's Long-Standing Partnership with National Grid

OCC has a long relationship with National Grid and was chosen for this project because of its competitive rates and prior experience in developing GLOIN, a predictive tool for thermal stress on buried cables, for National Grid’s engineers and planners.

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Software Modelling of Cables In Tunnels

With the rise in renewables and the decommissioning of several coal and nuclear power stations, electricity infrastructure in the UK is undergoing a rapid transformation. Several additional trunk routes are under development, including a number of new tunnels currently in the planning stage. To assist with this process, National Grid Asset Engineering commissioned the University of Southampton (UoS) to develop a model of the thermal properties of cables in tunnels and asked OCC to turn this research into a usable product. OCC had already developed the GLOIN tool for buried cables and an enhancement to the existing software to include this additional laying environment was the obvious choice.

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The determination of thermal properties of cables in tunnels, and therefore of the load that can safely be carried (the cable ‘rating’), is a complex problem. Tunnel geometry, patterns of air flow and other heat sources have significant effects. RoCiT, the new module for GLOIN, allows National Grid to build a model of a tunnel that incorporates all these factors and calculates steady state and transient ratings for a variety of routine and emergency scenarios.

With this information, National Grid Asset Engineering can advise on tunnel construction and on the safe and efficient operation of the network.

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