Proactive Monitoring, Detection and Location of Faults On Live Power Networks
Viper Innovations delivers advanced electrical integrity solutions that enhance reliability and safety in critical infrastructure.
Developed in collaboration with Network Rail, CableGuardian is an advanced monitoring solution designed to improve the reliability, safety, and efficiency of railway signalling power systems.
Compliant with key industry standards such as NR/L2/SIGELP/50000 and NR/L2/SIGELP/27725, CableGuardian eliminates the need for traditional five-yearly manual cable testing by offering continuous real-time assessment of electrical system integrity.
CableGuardian operates across three key functions—Monitor, Diagnose, and Recover—to ensure comprehensive oversight of the signalling power system.
CableGuardian provides scalable monitoring to suit network complexity, in line with NR/L2/SIGELP/27725:
- Tier 3: Monitors all feeders and returning an overall insulation resistance value for the entire system from a single PSP unit, providing a broad overview of system health.
- Tier 2: Monitors each feeder individually from the PSP, enabling fault attribution to specific feeders.
- Tier 1: Uses multiple CableGuardian units per feeder to locate faults down to individual cable sections between adjacent CableGuardian units, equipped with SSTDR for faster fault detection.
Key Benefits of Using CableGuardian
- Improved Safety: CableGuardian improves safety by reducing on-track work, predicting faults before failure, and identifying electrical hazards early. It minimises exposure to high-risk environments and enhances protection for both maintenance teams and rail users.
- Signal Failure Reduction: CableGuardian reduces signalling power failures by detecting degradation, intermittent faults and flood impacts early, minimising disruption and delays.
- Proven Trackside Technology Since 2018: Across 1million+ metres of cables monitored, this advanced system has been proven in operation since August 2018, with multiple UK regions already benefitting from the technology and further installations scheduled across the network this year.
- Reduce Manual Faulting & Periodic Testing: CableGuardian replaces five-year manual testing (NR/L2/SIGELP/50000) with real-time monitoring, improving fault detection, reducing trackside work, and cutting maintenance costs.
- Improve Train Performance, Avoid Delays: Signalling failures can lead to over 5,000 delay minutes per incident, severely impacting train performance. CableGuardian helps prevent high-impact signalling failures from theft, rodent damage, vibration, overload and ageing. It reduces delays by enabling early fault detection and supports rapid service recovery after floods through continuous monitoring of insulation resistance and capacitance.
CableGuardian Condition Assessment Service
Evaluate the condition of your systems without permanent equipment installation.
This service supports condition-based maintenance:
- Tier 2: Temporary installation at the PSP to assess insulation resistance (IR) across all outgoing feeders and internal circuits. Identifies underperforming feeders or existing faults.
- Optional Tier 1: Additional, more detailed assessment using trackside units along selected feeders identified in Tier 2, providing section-level IR insights where required.
For further details on our condition assessment offering, please refer to our service guide.
Keeping the trains running on time.
