Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment

Tender description

Northern Powergrid (NPG) are looking at replacing the legacy communications to Remote Terminal Units (RTU) on the secondary electrical distribution network. Currently Northern Powergrid have 2 Telemetry networks operating independently of each other; 1 in the North East and 1 in Yorkshire. The data transferred utilises the DNP3 protocol and eventually ends up in 1 of 2 GE ENMAC (Power On Fusion) Network Management System (NMS) geographically separated for redundancy purposes in one of our control centres. The intention is to build a common solution using hill top base station sites, approximately 80 in total. NPG will identify these sites and deal with all site based requirements separate to the tender. The solution will use 80 x 12,5 kHz channels in the VHF band, all RF planning will have been completed prior to issuing the tender and subsequent rollout programme; this will also be separate to this tender. Northern Powergrid (NPG) are looking at replacing the legacy communications to Remote Terminal Units (RTU) on the secondary electrical distribution network. Currently Northern Powergrid have 2 Telemetry networks operating independently of each other; 1 in the North East and 1 in Yorkshire. The data transferred utilises the DNP3 protocol and eventually ends up in 1 of 2 GE ENMAC (Power On Fusion) Network Management System (NMS) geographically separated for redundancy purposes in one of our control centres. The intention is to build a common solution using hill top base station sites, approximately 80 in total. NPG will identify these sites and deal with all site based requirements separate to the tender. The solution will use 80 x 12,5 kHz channels in the VHF band, all RF planning will have been completed prior to issuing the tender and subsequent rollout programme; this will also be separate to this tender. NPG believe it will be possible to achieve data rates of up to 40 kps, any proposed solution should look to meet this. There will be over 6 500 outstation sites that will require a site visit to install new hardware. A new transceiver, antenna and new cabling will be required as a minimum. There will also be a requirement on the installer to re-programme the RTU connected to the transceiver and then re-commission the site. The connection between the RTU and transceiver is serial. Due to the location of some of the equipment NPG provided personnel will install equipment at approximately 2 000 of these sites with the winning bidder supplying the equipment. A new network management system will be required to monitor all of the new telecommunication equipment. All new hardware should be ip addressable, with the ip design being a component of the tender. Security is a very important component of the design. End to end encryption will be necessary with end points at the outstation and control centres. All radio links should also include over air encryption: AES 256 as a minimum. It may also be necessary to install a door or cabinet alarm which should utilise i/o alarms on the transmitter. SNMP v3 is a minimum requirement. The tender will be released in Q2 of 2019 with contract award announced at the beginning of Q4; subject to a satisfactory tender process. There will be 2 contracts awarded; the first to carry out a proof of concept to confirm the solution meets all of our needs. On completion of a successful proof of concept the contract for the full rollout will be awarded. We foresee the project taking 3 ¼ years to complete with an end date of Q1 2023. The envisaged costs for delivering this are expected to be between 14 000 000 GBP and 20 000 000 GBP.