LineVision, the leading provider of advanced grid monitoring solutions, announced enhancements to its situational awareness platform, LineAware. In addition to monitoring conditions like conductor sag, blowout, and icing, these new features will equip utility operators with the industry’s most accurate hyper-local transmission line wind forecast data, powered by continuous sensor data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

As weather patterns become more extreme and volatile across the United States, wildfires pose a significant threat to electric grids and raise liability concerns for utilities. This has led to a doubling of wildfire and liability insurance premiums in some areas in the last five years, with rising temperatures, drought conditions, and dry vegetation all contributing to this growing risk. Transmission and distribution lines can be an ignition source, as evidenced by several catastrophic wildfires in the West that resulted in billions of dollars in fines and settlements.

To mitigate these risks, LineVision's non-contact LUX sensors are equipped with weather stations that directly measure wind speed within a right-of-way. This provides utility control rooms with continuous information on the environmental conditions their assets face, enabling precise calibration of weather model data in order to accurately capture the unique wind conditions within a utility corridor. Through hundreds of sensors globally, LineVision has found that modeled wind speeds can be overestimated by 70% and underestimated by 20%. This forecast uncertainty arises because weather providers don’t take into account high-resolution data on the local topography or have local sensor data for calibration. Factors like hills, valleys, trees, and buildings can significantly impact wind speeds within utility right-of-ways.

Jon Marmillo, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of LineVision, shared, “This enhancement to LineAware provides our utility partners with a critical tool to continuously monitor their critical infrastructure and alert on conditions that could lead to ignition events and jeopardize public safety and system reliability. We’re confident that this new data will empower utilities to reduce wildfire risk and enhance grid safety.”

LineVision’s enhanced LineAware capabilities are now available with new installations of LineVision’s LUX sensor platform and are currently being used by major investor-owned utilities on both the East and West Coast of the United States. For more information on how LineVision’s digital infrastructure offerings can help you strengthen your grid and rapidly increase capacity, visit LineVisionInc.com.