“The utilities are a sector where it's very slow until it's proven, and then everybody goes to the same conferences, everybody talks to each other, and if a solution works, then everybody adopts it. So it's slow, slow, slow until it's really fast.”
sputnikintelligence.com
The host noted utilities are cautious because a failed grid technology means blackouts and public blame. Rutter agrees that is how it should be, and says that once a technology like weather-based line ratings is proven, adoption spreads quickly.
…in all of these trials, trial after trial, utilities have concluded that they cannot really trust those measurements and forecasts. Forecasts. That has now changed on one hand. So the industry has gotten to solutions that work and they are becoming deployed, but it's been a change very recently.
…you've been claiming for it, then the grid fails, there are blackouts, it's a very bad situation for everybody. And that's when the people who are running utilities really feel politicians and regulators and the public on their backs. So, I mean, you can see why they are risk averse here, right?
…when a technology is proven, like forecasting wind now is with BridgeRave and many other companies in this space, then the technologies are becoming adopted. And one of the lessons that for me, when now working with many grids around the world, is that actually they are really, really looking for solutions and doing their best to figure out if it works. And once it does, they adopt them quickly. The utilities are a sector where it's very slow until it's proven, and then everybody goes to the same conferences, everybody talks to each other, and if a solution works, then everybody adopts it. So it's slow, slow, slow until it's really fast.
So where is adoption really picking up then?
It's happening in Europe first for specifically weather forecasting for transmission lines. Roughly a third of Europe is already using some form of weather forecasting to rate their lines and get more power through. The first ones actually were in Germany. And in Germany, they have a single price…
Right. I mean, there are other solutions that do involve adding sensors and hardware to the grid, right? I mean, that's a step. Is that kind of the next evolution of the technology? Where's that going?