Traditional grid monitoring solutions rely on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models with spatial resolutions typically ranging from 2.5 km to 30 km. While these are sufficient for regional atmospheric trends, they are far too coarse to account for the immediate microclimate surrounding a high-voltage conductor. At the typical conductor height of 6 to 20 meters, wind behavior is dominated by surface boundary layer effects that NWP models often simplify through empirical parameterization rather than direct calculation.
Gridraven achieves Hyper-local Precision by delivering forecasts at a 10-meter spatial resolution. This granularity allows the system to identify the specific "hotspots" or critical spans that actually limit a transmission line's capacity.
The 10-Meter Advantage
- Identifying Critical Spans: A single span sheltered by a row of trees or a building can limit the capacity of an entire line because it lacks convective cooling. Gridraven’s 10m precision identifies these bottlenecks specifically, rather than relying on broad regional averages.
- Landscape-Aware Modeling: Features such as local slopes, valleys, and forests can reduce wind speeds by more than 50% compared to open meteorological sites. Our model accounts for these variations to ensure that line ratings are never unsafely over-predicted in sheltered areas.
- Digital twin of the Environment: By integrating high-resolution LiDAR and satellite-derived Digital Elevation Models (DEM), the system creates a "digital twin" of the landscape surrounding every span.
Gridraven processes Digital Terrain Models (DTM) and Digital Surface Models (DSM) to detect obstacles like trees and buildings that influence wind behavior at the span level. Inputs to the model, where left is DTM, middle DSM and right the actual location.
Span-Level Analysis
Instead of applying a single static rating to an entire line, Gridraven treats every individual span (the segment between two towers) as a unique object. The system calculates the thermal state, including convective cooling, solar heating, and radiative cooling—for each specific 10-meter segment.
The final line rating is then determined by the lowest thermal capacity among all its constituent spans at any given hour. This "weakest link" approach ensures that operations remain conservative and safe while unlocking significantly more capacity than traditional static methods.
Calculated Dynamic Line Rating With Predicted Wind for Each Span. Each span's unique wind attack angle and speed are calculated to pinpoint precisely where the thermal limit is reached.