In the US, our grid is old. It hasn’t kept up with increasing demand and the variability of renewable energy. Rebuilding all the transmission lines would be expensive. But a temperature sensor the size of a bowling ball can increase the amount of energy the utilities can safely send down the lines, often by over 40 percent.
A sensor about the size of a bowling ball can measure the real-time temperature of a transmission line. With this information, the operator can safely increase the level of power flowing through the line.
The technology has grown in popularity in Europe in recent years, while remaining on the fringes of the U.S. market.
Great River Energy, a power provider to rural electric cooperative utilities in Minnesota, is now poised to take the lead in using these tools stateside. This week, it announced the installation of 52 sensors on lines across the state.
The company, which is based near the Twin Cities, decided to use the sensors systemwide following a positive experience with a pilot project in which four of the sensors, made by Heimdall Power of Norway, helped to increase the amount of power that could be delivered on a line by up to 42.8 percent.
As powerlines heat up, so does energy transmission. So the sensors can tell operators the temperature, revealing how much energy the line can handle in real time.
“Think about the temperature on the line as being the speed limit,” Festervoll said in a video call from Oslo. “Without the software and sensor, like the ones Heimdall Power provides, you’re driving without a speedometer.”
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21032024/inside-clean-energy-grid-enhancing-sensor-minnesota/
Darcy Hitchcock 
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