Episode 120 | LiDAR Lines | LineVision
We are asking a lot our transmission lines these days. The decades-long model of a web of large-scale generation surrounding the grid is giving way to rooftop solar, battery storage, and smaller generation like natural gas. You also have generation like wind coming from distant pockets of the country to urban centers.
“Transmission lines are the backbone of the grid, and they tend to be the things that are monitored the least,” according to my guest, LineVision Sales VP Alex Houghtaling. The company specializes in a real-time monitoring technology for these lines and says the data can be transformative.
A case study says congestion on power lines results in $8 billion in annual loses. Congestion is a two-way street. Businesses have to curtail energy consumption during congestion. Energy generation must also be capped. Alex cites a 2019 DOE study that shows that almost all congestion could be alleviated if these lines increased their capacity 10%.
The secret that LineVision is able to reveal, is that this congestion may not be as prevalent as many believe. These limits on transmissions lines are commonly referred to as “static ratings.” They’re set without real-world/real-time line conditions. Alex compares static ratings to a civil planner who bases congestion on a highway using a worst-case scenario (i.e. a snowstorm).
“If you did that, you’d be drastically underestimating the amount of cars that could fit on a highway when conditions were better,” says Alex.
External factors like wind could be keeping lines from overheating/sagging. LineVision’s LiDAR and electromagnetic field sensor units monitor these two details. The information is then passed on to the utility who can then decide if congestion is occurring as predicted.
“By not incorporating the real-time conditions—that wind on the lines—we’re just not having the amount of capacity that we could,” he says. It turns out that in the high-90% of the time, there is more capacity that is going untapped. Alex says LineVision’s data has shown that in the DOE figure cited above, transmission lines could handle much more than the 10% suggested.
I was curious about costs. Alex says their system is about 5% the unit cost of a transmission system. The individual units do not have to mount between every span of line. Depending on the heading of the line, one unit could monitor 4 miles of lines.
In addition to monitoring loading on the line, the system can also detect wildfires, vegetation encroachment, and “conductor slapping,” a potentially dangerous phenomenon that can also lead to wildfires.
“It’s all coming from LiDAR,” says Alex. “That same unit that’s attached to the tower is driving all of those applications at once.”
At the time of this recording, LineVision has about 30 utility clients globally. In the U.S. it is working with several utilities who operate more than a quarter of all transmission miles nationally.
“The moment we deliver [our data] to our customers, it instantly shines a flashlight on the areas where they don’t have that same information for other lines,” he says. “They realize, ‘We need this everywhere.’”
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