HEIMDALL
RE-ENGINEERING THE ELECTRICITY BIFROST
Smaller resource circles are a fast-emerging climate solution – onsite solar and wind power, water recycling, trash to energy, and sustainable communities. They can take pressure off of aging infrastructures, like roads and waste processing plants, which are struggling to keep up with increasing demand, as well as newer, under-designed infrastructure. That includes the power grids we will rely on for the foreseeable future.
We hear about governments and utilities wringing their hands over the cost of upgrades. When we see innovations like Heimdall Power’s grid-enhancing technology, let’s cross our fingers and toes that decision-makers are paying attention, and that the solution works as promised.
Some are calling them things like “magic balls.” We’re going to dub them, “spheres of influence.”
Heimdall calls them Neurons.
Mounted on existing high-voltage power lines, the IoT devices go to work monitoring all the things that can hinder power distribution, in real-time, like weather and line temperature, while its software uses digital communications technology to monitor grid health and optimize it, safely.
Heimdall’s tech is already proving itself across Europe, and gaining a foothold in the U.S. The Norwegian company has its sights set on the latter, in particular, where about 160,000 miles of power lines are hanging around waiting for Neurons to be attached.
Heimdall is already working with two U.S. customers, Great River Energy in Minnesota and a large, investor-owned Midwest utility, and has teamed up with Swiss weather data company, Meteomatics.
It looks like a formula for success because the company added ‘user-friendly’ into the equation. That means economical and easy to implement.
Utilities are reporting an average of a 30% increase in capacity in their systems, gained from using the Heimdall Cloud software for grid planning and analysis. A grid that can accommodate more energy can take on more renewables.
They are reporting savings from being able to use transmission lines more effectively. For the first time, utilities know exactly how much spare capacity is available in a power line and how to safely increase distribution. Without that information, costly redundancies are necessary.
Norwegian utility Arva reported it was able to disconnect one of two parallel lines. It could optimize the use of just one by having full control over its temperature to prevent overloading.
Neuron sensors operate in a temperature range of minus 40 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit.
Heimdall’s goal included the installation of lines that aren’t “expensive, time-consuming, dangerous or complicated,” and to be able to do it without power interruptions. So, they developed their autonomous drones.
About the size of a soccer ball, Neurons, as seen in this video, are positioned in under two minutes.
Grid optimization is not a new sector, but consider that across the globe, there are more than 900 electricity transmission and about 7,200 distribution utilities. All of them also need fast, effective and economical solutions to climate change impacts like increased power outages. Companies that are smart about how they make grids smart have the opportunity to help us literally better weather the storms.
