Fibre-based monitoring tech to detect faults across 500km transmission line

In a clean power project generating energy across a 500km transmission line in northeast US, fibre-based monitoring system developer Luna Innovations has been awarded a contract to provide temperature, depth of burial and acoustic monitoring for the power cables that form the backbone of the project’s system.

Luna Innovations, which develops advanced optical technology in the US, yesterday announced the contract. Luna’s tech is hoped to help ensure safe, efficient delivery of renewable, reliable, low-cost power over the area’s almost 500km transmission line.

The project will decrease wholesale electricity costs – saving residents of the metro area $17.3 billion over a 30-year span ‐ and reduce CO2 emissions in the region by an estimated 3.9 million tons in its first full year of operation.

Luna’s fibre-optic-based monitoring systems use distributed temperature sensing, depth sensing, and distributed acoustic sensing technology to detect potential fault locations in electric power cable systems.

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In this instance, the company’s sensing systems will detect compromised areas in or potential threats to the transmission line.

Understanding the exact location of compromised areas of the project’s High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable will reduce both repair time and down time for end users and increase overall safety and operability.

"We know from organisations like the World Resources Institute that cities are a core driver of climate change, accounting for more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Scott Graeff, President and CEO of Luna.

“Fibre-based monitoring systems play a key role in ensuring that clean, sustainable energy can be delivered safely and efficiently to major metropolitan areas over cable transmission lines like the one in this project.”