Telent Hits Major Milestone in SCADA Rollout

Telent, a specialist in the design, build, support and management of the UK’s critical digital infrastructure, has reached a significant milestone in its nationwide rollout of its new SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system for Network Rail, seeing several sites go live and the UK’s first remote secure test completed.

At Rugby Telent has completed the testing for the country’s first remote securing of electrical infrastructure on the West Coast Mainline. 

The remote securing technology enables safer working conditions for staff carrying out crucial maintenance tasks on the railway. This feature enables maintenance workers to prevent accidental re-energisation of segments of the track through a mobile phone app until their task is completed, with control rooms unable to override the app’s command. 

This removes the risk of miscommunication between ground workers and control rooms and makes the working environment safer. It also maximises the potential time available for planned works, minimising downtime and limiting passenger disruption.

With the test at Rugby completed, remote securing will now move into the formal Trial Phase before being rolled out nationwide for Network Rail. In addition to the remote securing tests at Rugby, Telent has deployed the latest version (v5.0) of the TPCMS (Traction Power Centralised Management System) technology to upgrade the SCADA system there at the station’s control rooms. 

Since September last year, Telent has also updated the SCADA systems implemented at Selhurst, Brighton and Canterbury. 

At Selhurst and Canterbury, Telent has completed significant updates to a prior version of the TPCMS SCADA technology, implementing TPCMS v5.0 on newly upgraded infrastructure. 

Network Rail’s legacy SCADA systems had become outdated and had reached its end of life, so appointed Telent to replace its SCADA systems with a single, national platform to control traction power and electrical distribution across its national network.

At Brighton, it was the first deployment of Telent’s new v5.0 software for a UK region that is not already utilising a Telent control system, marking a major step forward in delivering a modernised national traction power control system for Network Rail. 

Using an innovative standalone delivery model, Telent successfully accelerated the rollout, showcasing its ability to streamline implementation and improve efficiency.