Built for what lies ahead We re more than a network of pipes - the safety of our staff and the wider public are everything to us. That s why we ve teamed up with Excelerate Technology for the on board satellite communications of our two new mobile command units
About Scotia Gas Networks Scotia Gas Networks operates two of the UK's largest gas networks through 74,000 km of gas mains and services. We provide a safe and secure supply of natural gas to 5.8 million customers and are the second largest gas distribution company in the UK. Our networks cover a diverse area. We deliver gas to 75% of Scottish households, from the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh to remote areas through our Scottish Independent Undertakings at Stornoway, Wick, Thurso, Oban and Campbeltown. In England, we operate from Dorset in the west to Dover in the east. Our networks stretch as far north as Milton Keynes and Banbury and include all London Boroughs south of the Thames. We ve come a long way since our formation in 2005. We were named Company of the Year at the 2010 Gas Industry Awards, which was a great reflection of the progress we made in our first five years.
Our Innovation Innovation delivers significant business, customer and sustainability benefits, and is key to business growth and achieving our company goal of being a leader, not a follower. As part of our ongoing strategic decision to become more engaged with innovation, we ve invested in two satellite broadband-enabled mobile command units to ensure we manage and operate our networks in a safe and reliable manner, and have the necessary arrangements in place to respond to a gas supply emergency, SuperSat - our choice of mobile satellite platform - is ultra resilient and robust enough to deal with the most challenging environments. SuperSat operates on a private, low contended network ensuring reliable, super-fast speeds anywhere throughout the UK at anytime. These vehicles can be immediately dispatched and deployed either close to, or in the immediate vicinity of any hazardous area in the event of a gas leak or explosion. The onboard technology and communications will help us improve our ability to manage and resolve incidents in real time through on site command and control capability, and ensure the safety of our staff, customers and the general public. By demonstrating the highest standards of safety, reliability and efficiency, we aim to become the UK's leading gas network operator.
About Excelerate Founded in 2001, Excelerate Technology provides independent, private and secure communications solutions to government and commercial customers across the globe. The concept of satellite enabled mobile vehicle solutions is not new, however, the ability to provide instant scalable communications bubbles and sustain multiple applications across an incident ground or remote environment is. Our solutions enable operational personnel to rapidly deploy resilient and reliable communications applications, without reliance on normal terrestrial networks. Our team consistently deliver mission critical solutions to a varied range of markets spanning Emergency Responders, Government Organisations, and Maritime firms as well as other sectors including Education, Health, Oil and Gas, Prisons and Public Transport. We provide a wide and continually expanding range of solutions and services to our customers on a worldwide scale. From our UK based International Headquarters our reach is spreading allowing us to be more local to our customers and partners in Africa, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, the UK and the USA alongside regional offices based in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Melbourne, Perth and Washington DC. From mobile banks and libraries requiring access to broadband in rural locations, through to fully integrated mobile offices and command and control units, the provision of our solutions is supporting our customers in business continuity, resilience, civil contingency and multi agency cooperation, helping communities to stay connected through any situation. Genuine innovation lies at the heart of our growth story and our continued success is firmly linked to the commitment we make to new technologies and our customers. Everything we do is designed to bring critical information to our clients fingertips faster than ever before.
Our in-house Technical, Research & Development department continually monitor leading edge technologies to make sure we can offer and tailor solutions exactly to our customer s requirements. We are truly changing the game for secure managed communications. Our Customers include: Hazardous Area Response Teams for UK Ambulance Services Home Office The Scottish Fire Service Yorkshire Water, Civil Contingency Organisations and Local Authorities All NHS Ambulance Trusts In excess 28 Fire & Rescue Services UK Police Forces including; Thames Valley, Sussex, Surrey, Leicestershire, Gwent, The Metropolitan and Garda (Ireland). We have experience in working with organisations within Government, the Emergency services and utilities sectors including Nuclear Divisions and Oil & Gas globally. Nothing is more important to us than having the trust of our customers and we have built our reputation on a tradition of outstanding service and technical knowledge. Our customers feel safe in the understanding that all their communications needs are in the best possible hands. Our customer s work is not ordinary, therefore we cannot be ordinary in anything we do. David Savage Chairman and CEO: Excelerate Technology Limited.
Working Together Towards the Same Operational Picture In the event of a serious gas emergency such an explosion or major leak, it s essential that a resilient, robust and secure communications infrastructure is immediately deployed. We re responsible for resolving emergency gas incidents in a timely and efficient manner, ensuring public safety and the safety of our staff. In order to coordinate and resolve an incident in the most efficient way, we ve teamed up with Excelerate Technology to deploy mobile command units across our regions. Integrated on board the two newly commissioned mobile command units will be Excelerate Technology s superfast broadband KA satellite service - SuperSat. The KA SuperSat service will allow us to connect to back office infrastructure applications at headquarters that are required when responding to emergency incidents in real time.
The project team has worked exceptionally well together, embracing and delivering on challenging targets while remaining focused on the quality of the end product. Delivery has involved several teams working in close partnership, both within SGN and externally, and their understanding of our business's expectations in terms of build quality and IT solutions was second to none. The Project Manger set clear and precise plans throughout, incorporating careful consideration for future-proofing against changes and challenges going forward. This project has surpassed all our expectations. Tracey McIntyre Head of Operations
Communication is key in the emergency planning of a major incident, and by introducing two mobile command units we ve ensured that we have the technology to relay information back to our headquarters to manage a critical situation effectively. The roof mounted satellite platform (SuperSat) gives us high speed, resilient broadband anywhere in the UK, including areas where there is little or no 3G, 4G or broadband coverage. With connectivity of up to 10MB down and 4MB up, all of our data, video, voice and internet requirements will be seamless and without interruption. If a public network becomes overloaded, our communications will not be disrupted, as we will be operating on a low contended, secure private network as used by the emergency services. Our new, highly sophisticated communications capabilities enable us to be a key cooperating responder in the event of a critical situation such as a gas leak or explosion. Our expectations of what communications on board our vehicles can deliver have already been exceeded, and as new technologies emerge we re confident in integrating them in to an already future-proof system. Debbie Mann IT Project Manager
For me, the key points that enabled us to complete this project so successfully were that we had clear role, reporting and responsibility assignments, and that we spent time as a project team learning about the other departments involved and their challenges. We also managed the business' expectations through clear communication, calls, presentations, and making the vehicles an agenda item in all our fleet meetings Paul Davies SGN Fleet Manager We are impressed by SGN's strategic insight and willingness to invest in innovative, technical solutions that enhance their efficiency and improve safety for customers and the public alike. We re proud to be their partner in getting the two high spec emergency vehicles on the road. Bethan Evans Operations Director, Excelerate Technology