MAPLE GROVE, Minnesota — When it comes to power grid efficiency, there's no magic bullet. But what about a magic ball?
The Norwegian-based Heimdall Power is behind a sphere-shaped sensor that the company refers to as "neurons." The press has referred to them as "magic balls."
Whatever you call them, they have the power to increase the capacity of transmission lines. The sensor is placed on a power line and then provides all kinds of real-time information, including the temperature of the line.
"When the line becomes too hot, it sags... sometimes they don't know at what temperature it will give a certain sag so they operate too conservatively. We simply make it safe to utilize the whole capacity," said Jørgen Festervoll, CEO of Heimdall Power.
Heimdall explained it like driving, saying, "The limiting factor of an overhead power line... is the temperature. So think of this as the speed limit. Without a sensor like this, and software indicating what the temperature is actually at, it's like driving without a speedometer. When you're driving critical infrastructure, like the power grid, you do not want to speed. So you're driving very conservatively, typically 20% to 40% below actual speed limits."
Great River Energy (GRE) — a not-for-profit wholesale electric power cooperative based in Maple Grove — has installed four of these neurons in the past year. The pilot project helped them increase capacity on a key transmission line by up to 42.8%.
Now, GRE is deploying 52 neurons across the state in targeted areas with high congestion. On Tuesday afternoon, crews installed a sensor on a line in Maple Grove, using a drone.
"When you think of capacity of a transmission line, think of a water pipe. If you have a six-inch water pipe, you want six inches of water to get through that pipe. That water pipe is like a transmission line. We need to make sure that there are no clogs, no congestion, nothing limiting or obstructing the ability... for power, to flow on that transmission line," said Priti Patel, vice president of transmission for GRE.
Patel said the new technology will help them better serve their 1.7 million customers.
"Most of our customers live in predominantly rural communities and some of the poorest communities in the state. So when we talk about reliability and affordability, they're not just buzz words for us," Patel said.
GRE said it will also allow for more renewable energy to be used.
"I think for you, as a consumer, it's not going to make a lot of change for you using electricity. It's going to matter for your rates," Festervoll said. "By allowing more power to flow through... less congestion cost, less money spent for ratepayers. So it's actually a cost-saving tool."
The neurons not only monitor temperature but wind speed, the line angle, current, and more. The data is transported by cellular connection.
These neurons draw power directly from the line. According to Heimdall Power, it can be up on the line for potentially decades without maintenance.
Festervoll said one neuron, including the software licenses, costs 2-3% of what it would cost to build a new power line.
The technology is already popular in Europe and is starting to gain traction in the U.S.
"If you go five years back, capacity wasn't that big of a problem," Festervoll said. "So you didn't really use these technologies on a wide scale. Now with electric cars, solar, wind, a lot of new load growth through AI data centers, and so on, that's totally changed. Now you really need to know how much capacity you have on the different lines."
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