Startup Monitors Grid To Prevent Power Outages

A startup is to monitor Israel’s electrical grid in a bid to make it more reliable and less prone to power outages. 

Prisma Photonics monitors oil and gas pipelines, power lines, roads, and other large-scale utilities without installing any new sensors.

It can accurately detect and classify events around them, including electrical failures, suspicious activity, extreme weather hazards, and drone activity, and send alerts to personnel. 

Under the agreement with the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), it will cover a fifth of the country’s transmission grid – 1,000 km, or 620 miles – monitoring weather conditions and allowing for better grid management.

If there’s a problem it will pinpoint the location of the closest power tower, enabling quick response to restore service to normal. The company claims its sensors are 100 times more accurate and sensitive than any others.

The startup has been monitoring the national transmission grid since 2020. It gathers acoustic signatures that extend across thousands of kilometers of infrastructure, and sends it to an algorithm that classifies the data into relevant events and alerts. 

“We are extending our coverage to 1,000 km using new technology to a span no one has attempted before. It is an impressive and trustful step by IEC, following our initial collaboration”, said Dr. Eran Inbar, Prisma Photonics CEO. “The extension could improve the Israeli power ecosystem, presenting an innovative solution to market obstacles here, in Israel, and abroad.”

Amir Livne, Senior VP of Strategy and Innovation at IEC, said: “Prisma Photonics adds an important aspect to Israel Electric Corporation’s commitment to innovation, developing and improving our existing grid while facing the growth in power demand and realizing our long-term net zero and renewable energy visions. A reliable, valuable, and accessible electric supply for Israel must be maintained.”

Prisma Photonics was founded in 2017, and is based in Tel Aviv.