DISASTER MANAGEMENT SPONSORED EDITORIAL
NEW TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMS RESILIENCY READINESS Hardening a power grid is a necessary but complex undertaking. Bringing the right resiliency assessment tools to bear can simplify and accelerate the process.
W
hen Cyclone Seroja landed in April, it damaged 70 per cent of buildings in the towns of Kalbarri and Northampton. It also changed the conversation about how Australians prepare for catastrophic weather events. A team from James Cook University’s Cyclone Testing Station has recommended changes to regulations and building codes as destructive storms land ever farther south. Inevitably, the utility industry will also have to come to terms with the reality of increasing climatic uncertainty.
Whether recovering from one disaster or anticipating the next, cost-effectively enhancing the resilience of power grid structures begins with an accurate assessment of existing infrastructure health. That includes literally seeing all structural elements to assess possible weaknesses. OsmoVision® offers an unmatched suite of cutting-edge hardware and software that can document power grid vulnerabilities and strengths like no other. This removes the need for inaccurate, labour-intensive, slow and costly measurement though calibrated pixel counting. OsmoVision utilises a combination of proprietary LiDAR point cloud classification and imagery recognition tools to generate an accurate digital twin of utility structures. This turnkey LiDAR collection and processing system leverages the accuracy and repeatability of measurements and minimises potential data entry errors to improve accuracy, consistency, and efficiency of structural engineering analysis both at the individual structure level and when analysing entire lines. The digital twin generated by OsmoVision enables the assessment of system resiliency by simulating its ability to withstand high-impact events. This will determine which areas of a structure above ground are more resilient and which areas are at risk of failure during a high-impact event, such as a cyclone. To address points of poor resiliency, various hardening solutions are then simulated to support the determination of the best approach. Both resiliency analysis and pole owner business KPI’s are factored in during the hardening solution development, and the expected resiliency improvement is defined clearly for each critical KPI. When planning for severe weather, an additional advantage of having a digital twin is the ability to anticipate the required equipment, staff, and materials needed for recovery and also where it will be required. This helps prioritise placement and staging of response-related inventory to reduce downtime after an incident. In addition to the benefits of OsmoVision’s advanced technology, Logsys Power Services brings the expertise to support the structure owner’s decision making in matters of resiliency. Whether the need is to develop a plan and budget to implement a hardening solution, or to forecast the degradation of assets and its impact on resiliency, Logsys Power Services has experienced engineers, project managers and data scientists to answer those critical questions.
For more information on how OsmoVision® and Logsys Power Service can assist with grid hardening, head to www.logsys.com.au
50
September 2021 ISSUE 15
www.energymagazine.com.au
