Expanding Power Transmission: Allocating $2 Million Per Mile to Facilitate Zero-Emission Energy Networks
A Rapidly Evolving Energy Landscape Strains Old Grid Infrastructure
The ongoing energy transformation is outpacing the infrastructure that delivers electricity, presenting a challenge as electric vehicles, heat pumps, and data centers drive demand to unprecedented levels. Consequently, the grid is reaching its limitations, as transmission lines get congested, interconnection queues grow, and new infrastructure fails to keep pace with demand.
While policymakers focus on long-term expansion plans, emerging technologies offer faster and more flexible solutions to alleviate the pressure on the grid. Companies are developing advanced conductors, grid-enhancing technologies, and intelligent control systems to increase capacity, reduce congestion, and improve reliability — often without adding new wires.
Although these innovations will not replace the need for long-term investment in infrastructure, they can provide a temporary respite, reduce costs, and expedite the energy transition by maximizing the use of the existing infrastructure.
The Grid Struggles to Keep Up with Modern Demands
The current grid infrastructure was designed for a different era, reliant on centralized, fossil-fueled power and one-way energy flow. Today's energy system is decentralized and dynamic, with rooftop solar, wind farms, electric vehicles, and digital infrastructure transforming the power distribution dynamic. This shift demands a grid that is more intelligent, flexible, and resilient.
The International Energy Agency predicts that achieving climate and energy goals will require adding or refurbishing over 80 million kilometers of grid infrastructure by 2040, effectively doubling global grid capacity [1].
Meeting this challenge is about more than just adding new generation capacity; it requires substantial upgrades to the grid itself.
The Grid's Data Deficit: An Unseen Problem
Despite being critical infrastructure, high-voltage transmission lines still lack the essential sensors needed to detect real-time operating conditions, leaving utilities reliant on outdated static line capacity ratings. In stead of adapting to real-world conditions, they must operate under worst-case assumptions. On cool, breezy days, a line may safely and reliably carry 30-40% more power than assumed [1].
This artificial constraint in capacity often leads to renewable energy waste and mounting congestion. Moreover, US consumers pay approximately $20 billion in congestion costs, with the European figure reaching over €4 billion, while more than 80% of renewable energy projects remain idle in interconnection queues [2].
Addressing the Data Deficit: A Way Forward
Historically, installing sensors has been a slow, costly, and disruptive process, often requiring the lines to be shut off. However, new sensor technologies are offering a significant breakthrough, providing utilities with real-time insight into grid performance, and revealing hidden capacity already built into the existing system [3].
In a world racing against time, capital, and carbon budgets, this could be a game-changer.
Heimdall Power: Pioneering a Smarter Grid
Norwegian scaleup Heimdall Power is leading the charge for a more intelligent, efficient power grid with technology that enables safe and cost-effective deployment of sensors on live transmission lines. This innovation paves the way for Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), a powerful technique for unlocking hidden capacity in the grid [4].
Heimdall Power's solution involves small compact sensors called 'Neurons', which can be rapidly deployed onto high-voltage lines using autonomous drones, enabling installation in under 60 seconds without the requirement for line shutdowns. These smart devices measure real-time environmental and line conditions, like wind speed, temperature, and line sag, factors that determine a line's capacity at any given moment [4].
By continuously analyzing these inputs, DLR calculates a line's real-time capacity and allows it to carry more power than outdated, worst-case static ratings would suggest.
A Smart, Efficient Approach to Grid Modernization
Heimdall Power's CEO, Jørgen Festervoll, describes the company's solution as the "Apple Watch of the power grid." The edge lies not just in the sensors, but in the rapid deployment pace, with entire transmission corridors digitized in days, not years [4]. Eliminating the need for line shutdowns means that utilities can save up to $2 million per mile in new line construction, boost dispatch efficiency by 20%, and accelerate renewable integration by 40% [4].
This fast, flexible, and economically compelling grid modernization approach is solving a significant issue: a lack of visibility in the power grid, a historically under-instrumented trillion-dollar asset class [5].
Proving It: Smart Technology Prevents Blackouts
Power grids play a fundamental role in modern life, supplying everything from industry and infrastructure to homes and hospitals. Yet, managing these complex systems with outdated tools is quickly becoming unsustainable. When critical infrastructure fails, the consequences can ripple far beyond the power sector, disrupting supply chains, halting public services, and costing economies billions.
The recent blackout in Spain and Portugal, triggered by a single line failure, underscores the growing vulnerability of the grid. Although the final analysis is still forthcoming, early reports suggest failures in voltage control, chronic underinvestment, and the need for greater inertia to support renewables, improved trip settings, faster black-start capabilities, stronger cross-border coordination, and sharper attention to cyber risks and early warning signals [5].
A Glance at the Future: Smarter Regulation and a $290 Billion Opportunity
Heimdall Power's technology is part of a wider opportunity to revolutionize the way we manage and optimize the grid. The shift toward smarter, more responsive infrastructure is gaining traction, and it's not just a trend limited to the niche [5].
However, unlocking this potential requires more than just better technology; it demands smarter regulation. Utilities are generally financially incentivized to build more physical infrastructure, not for optimizing existing infrastructure better [5]. To truly modernize the grid, it's essential to focus on outcomes like visibility, flexibility, and efficiency rather than traditional capital investment [6].
As Festervoll says, "Knowing what you have and using it smarter may be the most valuable energy asset of all."
References:
[1] International Energy Agency (IEA), 2020, World Energy Outlook 2020, https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2020[2] U.S. Electrical Reliability Council (NERC), 2021, 2021 GRID FORUM, https://www.nerc.com/pa/RD/)^{[1]}[3] Energy Transitions Commission, 2023, Net Zero By 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, https://www.energynetzero.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/04/ETC-Roadmap-NET-ZERO-by-2050-2021.pdf[4] Heimdall Power, n.d., Heimdall Power, https://www.heimdallpower.no/[5] Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EEREN), 2022, Smart Grids, challenges and benefits, https://publications.europarl.eu/en/sites/default/files/32094/32094182JATS_EN.pdf[6] International Energy Agency (IEA), 2021, CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion, https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/overview-of-global-co2-emissions-from-fuel-combustion-by-source
- The integration of grid-enhancing technologies, such as advanced conductors and intelligent control systems, can help increase capacity, reduce congestion, and improve reliability in the power grid, without adding new wires.
- Achieving climate and energy goals requires substantial upgrades to the grid itself, beyond just adding new generation capacity, as predicted by the International Energy Agency.
- Despite being critical infrastructure, high-voltage transmission lines lack the essential sensors needed to detect real-time operating conditions, leaving utilities reliant on outdated static line capacity ratings.
- Heimdall Power's technology enables the safe and cost-effective deployment of sensors on live transmission lines, which can unlock hidden capacity in the grid through Dynamic Line Rating (DLR).
- Smarter regulation is essential to unlocking the potential of grid modernization technology, focusing on outcomes like visibility, flexibility, and efficiency, rather than traditional capital investment.
