eSmart Systems and envelio are excited to announce their partnership to support utilities with their asset management and grid planning decisions.
eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision® solution powered by AI enables utilities to scale virtual inspections and grid inventory while digitalizing transmission and distribution assets with an image-based digital asset, combining inspection data, substation assets, metadata and grid topology to provide actionable insights and downstream value beyond the inspection.
envelio’s Intelligent Grid Platform empowers utilities by delivering a digital twin of the distribution grids. The platform unites relevant grid data from multiple sources into one platform to digitalize and automate grid planning and grid operation processes. Applications like Grid Planning and Grid Study enable the evaluation of future scenarios and their effect on the power grids. The results can then be used for strategic grid planning.
Bringing the two solutions together unlocks a powerful combination of an accurate image-based digital asset with the digital twin, resulting in a knowledge-based platform to support utilities to break down silos between grid operations, investment planning and condition monitoring to provide holistic and accurate information on the conditional and physical state of the grid. Based on these additional insights on the power flow and mechanical asset data combined, utilities can enable improved maintenance and inspection planning, support unplanned outage response and improve long term asset investments and strategic grid planning for their power grids.
The partnership between eSmart Systems and envelio will enable a giant leap in the cross-functional use of data from both our worlds. This will benefit multiple departments and user groups within the utility, due to the exchange and uplift of the different types of information we each focus on.
Innovation partnerships like the one with eSmart Systems are the key to the energy transition. Together we create a solution with a technological best-of-breed approach that enables cost-optimized and accelerated asset management and expansion planning of the power grids and thereby supporting grid operators in meeting the challenges of the energy transition.
- Inspektionsdienstleistungs-Programm zur Bereitstellung einer vollständigen virtuellen Inspektion des AllgäuNetz Freileitung Hochspannungsnetz.
- Virtuelle Inspektion unterstützt durch Künstliche Intelligenz.
Die AllgäuNetz ist Verteilnetzbetreiber im südlichen Allgäu in Deutschland. Gemeinsam mit eSmart Systems beginnt AllgäuNetz die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ziel die Inspektion des Freileitungsnetzes deutlich zu verbessern. Die Lösung der eSmart Systems ermöglicht eine virtuelle Inspektion der Freileitungen, die durch eine künstliche Intelligenz unterstützt wird.
Mit diesem Schritt unterstreicht AllgäuNetz ihre Strategie, verstärkt erneuerbare Energien zu integrieren, den Ausbau intelligenter Netze auszudehnen und die Digitalisierung ihrer Assets und Prozesse voranzutreiben. Dies dient dazu, die Energiewende zu unterstützen und gleichzeitig das hohe Maß an Versorgungssicherheit für die AllgäuNetz Kunden zu optimieren.
Wir waren sehr beeindruckt vom Ansatz und der Methodik von eSmart Systems zur Unterstützung unserer Inspektionsanforderungen. Im Rahmen eines ersten Pilotprojekts lieferten die qualitativ hochwertigen und präzisen Inspektionsergebnisse, die im Rahmen von Grid Vision® bereitgestellt wurden, wertvolle Einblicke in unsere kritische Infrastruktur. Wir freuen uns, dies nun in unserem gesamten Hochspannungsnetzbetrieb in dieser Qualität durchführen zu können.
Im Rahmen dieser Partnerschaft bietet eSmart Systems eine vollständige Ende-zu-Ende-Inspektionslösung von der Bilderfassung mit Drohnen und automatisierten Flugmustern bis hin zur virtuellen Inspektion mit Grid Vision®. Somit erhöhen wir die Inspektionseffizienz. Diese Partnerschaft wird sicherere, genauere und effizientere Sichtprüfungen der Freileitungen ermöglichen und die Inspektionskosten optimieren. Zusätzlich wird das Programm ein bildbasiertes digitales Abbild der Freileitungsanlagen erstellen, welches die AllgäuNetz dabei unterstützt, sich bei der Investitionsplanung auf Betriebsmittel, basierend auf ihrem Zustand, für Wartungs- und Reinvestitionsmaßnahmen zu konzentrieren.
The partnership between eSmart Systems and envelio will enable a giant leap in the cross-functional use of data from both our worlds. This will benefit multiple departments and user groups within the utility, due to the exchange and uplift of the different types of information we each focus on.
Über die AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG
Die AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG ist der Verteilnetzbetreiber im südlichen Allgäu und versorgt 144.000 Kunden sicher mit Strom.
Eine sichere und zuverlässige Stromversorgung ist eine wichtige Grundlage unserer Gesellschaft. AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG, als Allgäuer Unternehmen Kraftwerke GmbH, Allgäuer Überlandwerk GmbH, Energiegenossenschaft z.B. Mittelberg, Energiebedarf Oberstdorf GmbH und Energiebedarf Oy- Kressen eG stellt sich dieser Verantwortung konsequent.
Mit unseren Mitarbeitern sind wir für große Teile des Stromnetzes im südlichen Allgäu verantwortlich. Das in Betrieb befindliche Stromnetz umfasst ca. 5.500 km Leitungen auf einer Fläche von ca. 1.700 km².
Durch das Zusammenspiel erneuerbarer Energien, intelligenten Netzausbau und -betrieb sowie zuverlässige flächendeckende Betreuung sorgen wir für ein hohes Maß an Versorgungssicherheit.
Gemeinsam mit unseren Privatkunden, Gewerbebetrieben und den Gemeinden im südlichen Allgäu arbeiten wir täglich an der sich verändernden Energielandschaft und setzen die Veränderungen gemeinsam innovativ und zielorientiert um.
Über eSmart Systems
eSmart Systems ist ein führender Anbieter von KI-gestützten Lösungen für die Inspektion und Wartung kritischer Infrastrukturen. Mit unserer Softwarelösung, Grid Vision® revolutionieren wir die Betriebs- und Wartungsprozesse von Netzbetreibern für ihre Übertragungs- und Verteilungsnetze. Wir unterstützen Netzbetreiber weltweit dabei, Inspektionskosten zu senken, Inspektionen sicherer zu gestalten, die Qualität der Asset informationen zu verbessern und die Lebensdauer der Assets zu verlängern.
- Inspection as a Service program to deliver full virtual inspection of AllgäuNetz’s distribution network.
- Virtual inspection supported by Artificial Intelligence.
AllgäuNetz the Distribution System Operator in southern Allgäu, Germany is partnering with eSmart Systems to transition their infrastructure inspection from manual to virtual inspection supported by Artificial Intelligence. This move is to emphasize AllgäuNetz’s strategy of integrating more renewables and expanding their intelligent networks and digitalizing their assets and operations to support the energy transition and optimise a high level of security of supply to their customers.
Wir waren sehr beeindruckt vom Ansatz und der Methodik von eSmart Systems zur Unterstützung unserer Inspektionsanforderungen. Im Rahmen eines ersten Pilotprojekts lieferten die qualitativ hochwertigen und präzisen Inspektionsergebnisse, die im Rahmen von Grid Vision® bereitgestellt wurden, wertvolle Einblicke in unsere kritische Infrastruktur. Wir freuen uns, dies nun in unserem gesamten Hochspannungsnetzbetrieb in dieser Qualität durchführen zu können.
As part of this partnership eSmart Systems will provide the full end-to-end inspection solution from image capture with automated flight patterns and drones to the virtual inspection, which will provide safer, more accurate and efficient visual inspections and will optimize the inspection costs. The program will also build an image-based digital asset alongside the inspection which will support AllgäuNetz to focus on assets based on condition for maintenance and rebuilds.
The partnership between eSmart Systems and envelio will enable a giant leap in the cross-functional use of data from both our worlds. This will benefit multiple departments and user groups within the utility, due to the exchange and uplift of the different types of information we each focus on.
About AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG
AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG is the Distribution System Operator in southern Allgäu, Germany, supplying safe and secure electricity to 144,000 customers.
A safe and reliable power supply is an important basis for our society. AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG, as a company belonging to Allgäuer Kraftwerke GmbH, Allgäuer Überlandwerk GmbH, Energiegenossenschaft eG Mittelberg, Energiebedarf Oberstdorf GmbH and Energiebedarf Oy-Kressen eG, consistently faces up to this responsibility.
With our employees, we are responsible for large parts of the power grid in southern Allgäu. The power grid in operation includes approximately 5,500 km of lines in an area of approximately 1,700 km².
Through the interaction of renewable energies, intelligent network expansion and operation as well as reliable support across the area, we ensure a high level of security of supply.
Together with our private customers, commercial businesses and the communities in southern Allgäu, we work daily on the changing energy landscape and implement the changes together in an innovative and goal-oriented manner.
About eSmart Systems
eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. With our software solution, Grid Vision® we revolutionize how utility companies operate and maintain their transmission and distribution networks. We support utilities globally to reduce inspection costs, make inspections safer, improve the quality of asset data and prolong asset life. eSmart Systems has more than 20 years of international experience in establishing and operating knowledge-based, leading IT and energy-related companies targeting global markets.
- 5-year program to digitalize and automate current inspection process to a complete Artificial Intelligence (AI) image-based virtual inspection.
- The inspection program will focus on distribution grid with a focus on wood, steel and concrete structures.
- BKW will utilize AI to improve the speed and quality of the virtual inspection process.
The program will utilize eSmart Systems Grid Vision® solution, powered by AI to support the high voltage distribution grid with inspection and maintenance. This partnership will provide safer, more accurate and efficient visual inspections and will optimize the inspection costs.
Grid Vision® will be delivered as a Software as Service solution for BKW Energie. The solution delivers automation from day one through the 40+ AI models that are already trained on over 15 million global images. Through a Collaborative-AI approach, BKW will automate their virtual inspections to improve the quality and speed of inspections. The partnership will enable BKW Energie to transition their inspection processes to condition-based asset maintenance over time with the use of Grid Vision® Insight.
Wir waren sehr beeindruckt vom Ansatz und der Methodik von eSmart Systems zur Unterstützung unserer Inspektionsanforderungen. Im Rahmen eines ersten Pilotprojekts lieferten die qualitativ hochwertigen und präzisen Inspektionsergebnisse, die im Rahmen von Grid Vision® bereitgestellt wurden, wertvolle Einblicke in unsere kritische Infrastruktur. Wir freuen uns, dies nun in unserem gesamten Hochspannungsnetzbetrieb in dieser Qualität durchführen zu können.
By lowering their carbon footprint through reduced field visits, and focusing on assets based on condition for maintenance and rebuilds, BKW Energie is building for a sustainable future and the partnership with eSmart Systems will support these initiatives with integrating more low carbon technologies onto the grid.
The partnership between eSmart Systems and envelio will enable a giant leap in the cross-functional use of data from both our worlds. This will benefit multiple departments and user groups within the utility, due to the exchange and uplift of the different types of information we each focus on.
About BKW
The electricity grid is the backbone of modern society. As the operator of Switzerland’s largest distribution system, BKW ensures that electricity flows reliably from producers to consumers. We plan and build grid infrastructure and make the most of the opportunities that digitalization has to offer to create sustainable living spaces.
We distribute electricity to one million people in our supply area via 22,000 km of lines and 188,000 grid connections. By running our grid safely and efficiently, we can offer our new customers access to it based on their needs.
About eSmart Systems
eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. With our software solution, Grid Vision® we revolutionize how utility companies operate and maintain their transmission and distribution networks. We support utilities globally to reduce inspection costs, make inspections safer, improve the quality of asset data and prolong asset life. eSmart Systems has more than 20 years of international experience in establishing and operating knowledge-based, leading IT and energy-related companies targeting global markets.
In this whitepaper, learn what to consider and how you can realize the benefits of the new generation of infrastructure inspections and increase the resiliency of your power grid.
The project, completed in 2021, focused on hardware and defects identification. The project looked at cotter pins, with an emphasis on loose and upside-down cotter pins. The project was able to automatically detect over 11,000 total and successfully identify 781 upside-down pins within a few seconds. The project enabled the public utility’s maintenance engineers to efficiently locate the 2-inch upside-down cotter pins on up to 100 feet high towers and assess their conditions. The outcome of the project is an increase in powerline safety, field worker safety, and, as result, community safety. The case-study described below demonstrates the potential of virtual powerline inspections in enhancing community safety.
Introduction
Multiple large-scale wildfires are reported in the US every year. Such events cost tens of billions of dollars in direct costs such as property loss and damage and indirect costs such as long-term health exposures, market loss, and non-collectable taxes, etc[1]. The consequences of such events can be disastrous from a human, material, and environmental perspective.
Defects in the power grid can cause wildfires; active causes can include a tree or branch falling over a powerline and sparking a wildfire. Triggered material or old powerline components can generate arcs or sparks, and under dry weather conditions and with dry surrounding vegetation, can lead to disastrous and hard to control wildfires.
To minimize the risk of wildfires caused by power grid issues, it is important to ensure conductors do not encounter any foreign objects like trees, other conductors, or the ground. This can only be achieved by properly managing vegetation in areas surrounding powerlines and by sufficiently keeping conductors separate from each other. Spacers and cotter pins, specifically, play a critical role in keeping conductors separated. Spacers keep conductors away from each other, while cotter pins hold the parts in transmission towers in place.
Cotter pins, however, could wear out and loosen over time. A loose and upside-down cotter pin is more likely to slip, becoming unsafe and increasing the chance of conductor failure and the probability of generating an arc flash touching their surroundings. Therefore, a main focus of the efforts led by the public utility to minimize the chance of wildfires is the management and maintenance of cotter pins specifically. As they are more likely to be upside-down than loose, the public utility decided to first assess the number of upside-down cotter pins on their grid. However, manually identifying the orientation of cotter pins is a tedious and resource-consuming task, as there can be as many as 50 2-inch cotter pins on each lattice tower, and the grid in this case includes over 1000 lattice towers.
The new approach
Both the public utility and the engineering and construction company defined the inspection process based on the required scope and accessibility of each structure. eSmart Systems shared their expertise to support that process definition and provided access to Grid Vision, a virtual inspection solution for power grids, enabling professionals to inspect powerlines from the office. Virtual inspection is a new approach to conducting powerline inspections by leveraging the power of automation, smart algorithms, and user-friendly interfaces to facilitate the work of the professionals analyzing the status of the infrastructure. Virtual inspections are also supported with artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically and promptly identify all the components of a power grid, as well as to detect various failures in the grid. With the application of such technologies, the software was able to identify 781 instances of upside-down cotter pins out of 11,000 cotter pin crops, within seconds (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Examples of an upside-down cotter pin automatically detected in the grid.
By associating those findings with information of the tower on which the upside-down cotter pins were located, the public utility could identify which towers required attention instantly. This approach has improved the efficiency and accuracy of identifying upside-down cotter pins and improved safety by having line workers only climbing structures when needed.
The utility also looked at other types of key components and their failure modes (flashed insulators, woodpecker damage on wooden transmission towers, rust on lattice towers, etc.) that could be identified utilizing this new approach for a proactive maintenance of powerlines. C-hooks and shackles, which are used for affixing insulators to brackets attached to crossarms, are particularly important components to look at in this context. The lattice towers are over 50 years old. Nonetheless, the virtual detection system was able to identify over 25,000 crops of C-hooks and shackles on the images captured during the inspection and very little wear was detected.
Figure 2: Examples of (a) a c-hook in good condition, (b) very limited level of wear seen on c-hooks during the project and (c) a shackle, highlighting the general good condition of those components in the grid.
Utilities are constantly looking for innovative ways to improve safety inspection and grid maintenance. This project has demonstrated that well-designed solutions supported by AI are game-changing tools, making inspection easier, more efficient and safer. The collaborative AI approach was instrumental to ensuring the correct components were identified and defects detected. The construction company’s review of the results from eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision solution ensured that high quality inspection standards were met and illustrated how utilities and engineering companies can benefit from virtual inspection tools.
The success of this program demonstrates how proactive actions can be implemented to enhance power grid management efficiency, and proves that smart solutions could help prevent wildfires, in addition to illustrating numerous other advantages, such as new quality assessment possibilities, defect detection standardization, and increased trust in data.
Contact us today and see how Grid Vision is transforming the way the world’s leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure.
[1]https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2020/November-December-2020/Features/Wildfire
Zeina Othman from Mälardalens University in Sweden is working in partnership with eSmart Systems on her thesis “Re-designing Organizational Routines in the Echo of AI Algorithms”. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop an understanding of how organizations need to re-design and influence processes when introducing and deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI).
eSmart Systems has been working with AI within our Grid Vision® solution for over 10 years, as a co-pilot for conducting virtual inspection of transmission and distribution grids through a process we call Collaborative-AI. We are working with over 50 utilities globally in supporting their journey to virtual inspections using Grid Vision.
Technology has a huge impact on large organizations in terms of processes, adoption, and change management, and we are thrilled to partner with Zeina to explore this journey with one of our key European customers.
Stayed tuned to learn more about Zenia’s work by signing up to our newsletter here: GridVision.com/newsletter
About Zeina Othman
Zeina Othman studies and teaches international project management at Mälardalens University in Sweden. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, Zeina worked in project management with the UN and non-governmental organizations in Jordan including USAID and Jordan River Foundation. She also worked in Abu Dhabi/UAE for Accenture and Lockheed Martin Global Inc.
Utility companies are required to inspect their grid on a regular maintenance cycle. Traditionally this work would be done by walking along, or flying helicopters over the power grid. Inspection and maintenance of power lines used to be tremendous and tedious work, not to mention extremely dangerous.
Even though most utility companies have moved over to image-based inspection, they have trouble sorting through the vast amounts of images. It is estimated that one expert can sort through 50 000 images per year.
Thanks to a Norwegian tech company, eSmart Systems, based in Halden, Norway, this tedious job can now be done faster, more accurate, more cost effective and a lot safer.
Images are imported into their software, Grid Vision, which uses collaborative artificial intelligence (AI) to detect faults in components. eSmart Systems estimate their solution can help utilities companies save inspection costs by 40 per cent.
In stress tests, eSmart Systems have been able to process 180 000 images an hour, more than three times the amount of what a human is capable of processing in a whole year!
Our solutions help utilities thrive in an evolving landscape and optimize infrastructure inspections to reach better decisions quicker and at a lower cost.
More precise defect detection
Åsberg ensures that Grid Vision is not created to make the detection experts redundant. The approach used in Grid Vision is Collaborative-AI, where the expert’s feedback on the recommendations made by the AI to raise the quality of their work, and free up time, that they can use to improve their service to their customers.
– As the experts work with the AI, it learns, gets smarter and even more precise. With faster image processing, the utilities can detect defects earlier and resolve any issues before they become a problem. The experts can even move their attention to predictive maintenance, says Åsberg.
eSmart Systems has one of the largest qualified data sets in the world. They have expanded their suite of solutions to create synthetic images. In graphic engines like Unreal, they create 3D models of digital components and add faults to give the AI more data to learn from.
– The utilities get more objective inspections and a better foundation to plan their maintenance budgets. Deeper insight and better documentation in the infrastructure can really make a difference ahead of the wildfire season for example, says Åsberg.
Industrial scale through the cloud
eSmart Systems currently serve utility companies across Europe and North America and have helped inspect more than 100 000 kilometers of transmission and distribution overhead lines and analyzed more than 3 million images. All because their solutions are built with the purpose of being scalable in Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure.
eSmart Systems is a certified independent software vendor (ISV) partner with Microsoft. The entire solution is hosted in Azure.
– Our solution was born in Azure. We have never owned a server on our own. On a technical level, Microsoft and Azure has been totally crucial for our ability to scale, Åsberg explains.
The partnership has been fruitful on a commercial level as well.
– All our leads are generated through Microsoft’s ecosystem. It can be difficult for a small company from Norway to get the contracts with enormous utility companies on our own. The path to a meeting is much shorter when it is a technology giant like Microsoft that makes the call, says Åsberg.
Industry lead for power and utilities in Microsoft Norway, Tor Inge Åsen, underlines that the partnership is mutually beneficial.
– While we can supplement eSmart Systems thanks to our brand, they validate us in an industry where we have no solutions that are directly applicable as well. They give us a way into a vertical we would’ve struggled to get a foothold in without a partner with expertise in the field, Åsen confirms.
A solution for the future
The energy grid is the largest asset in the world, and a necessity if our society is to have any chance of making the green shift into a more electrified world.
– Our software will play a huge part in how utilities will prioritize investments. Maybe they can even defer infrastructure investments and focus on high-risk assets only, because they will be in more control over the maintenance needs. This gives eSmart Systems a higher purpose, and makes our job more meaningful, says Åsberg.
Contact us today and see how Grid Vision is transforming the way the world’s leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure.