Fighting Fires with IoT Energy Management
Written by: Cody Lirette
Published: November 14, 2019
A New Era of IoT Energy Management
As power consumption is projected to rise by 40% over the next 25 years, IoT energy management remains top of mind for many utility companies. It has proven to be a worthy subject for IoT innovation, as recent events in California have shown the impact extreme weather can have on utilities.
In the energy industry, businesses are harnessing IoT to enable unprecedented real-time monitoring, create waste-free power delivery and build a fully-automated platform for gauging the health and capabilities of each power grid.
Much has remained the same since the advent of the power grid, resulting in an antiquated system that provides little to no value in terms of automation, efficiency and predictiveness.
One of the main flaws with the traditional energy management system was that any excess energy that was created could be lost due to unforeseeable outages, resulting in a waste of power and the resources required to create it.
Instead of supplying exactly enough to meet demand in real time, these energy systems would supply as much as possible to fill the estimated demand using remote monitoring, big data analytics and IoT technology.
Pioneers in Smart Energy
Countless businesses are taking unique approaches to IoT energy management with innovative products and services that are designed to vault the energy industry into the future. Launched in May 2018, LineVision aims to deliver real-time energy management and monitoring for many of the world’s leading electric utilities and pipeline owners.
With real-time insights into pipeline health as energy travels to and from power stations, utility companies relying on LineVision’s innovative platform can benefit from increased safety, performance and flexibility.
As showcased with the California wildfires, not understanding the health of a pipeline in real time can prove to be fatal. To address this, LineVision’s IoT-connected sensors monitor a variety of different elements that can be used to predict energy failure, including ambient temperature, tensile strength and more.
In addition, this data can be used to determine the age and health of a particular power line, handy for replacing the equipment while it’s functioning instead of when it results in an outage.
This information is then sent via Soracom cellular connectivity to the cloud where it can be analyzed to determine trends and patterns. Plus, understanding current levels can help to estimate where safety parameters should be placed in case of an emergency.
Supporting the Global Power Grid with Cellular IoT
The impact of IoT energy management stretches far beyond the Golden State. In fact, the whole world can benefit from the value, performance and efficiency that smart energy can deliver.
LineVision understood this, which is why they partnered with a cellular IoT connectivity provider that can help them scale their operations quickly, securely and effortlessly.
Soracom enabled LineVision to supply clients around the world with reliable cellular connectivity that also featured the end-to-end security that utility companies require. Plus, our intuitive web-based API allowed LineVision to set data caps that enabled them to avoid unnecessary data overage fees.
To learn more about how LineVision and Soracom built an intelligent IoT energy management platform, check out our comprehensive case study.
Contact us today to discover why 15,000 IoT businesses around the world are powering their projects with Soracom cellular connectivity.
