The power grid is the world’s largest and most complex machine, and we’re asking more of it than ever before. It must deliver more and more power while remaining the reliable backbone of a nation building toward its future. Yet much of that infrastructure is more than 50 years old, and the extreme weather testing it is growing more severe. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
The grid of tomorrow demands a level of observability that does not currently exist. We need to know exactly when every bolt on every crossarm on every pole across the country needs to be replaced. We need to know when every branch on every tree along every right-of-way is getting even one inch too close to a conductor.
At Voltair, we’ve always come back to one idea: What if every transmission corridor in America got a LiDAR scan and a full asset inspection every month? And what if the highest fire-risk areas got one every hour?
It sounds ridiculous. Today, a single corridor pass means sourcing aircraft and pilots, mobilizing crews, planning flights around weather and airspace, and then waiting weeks for usable data. At that cost, utilities get a snapshot once a year, if they’re lucky.
So we asked a different question: What would the hardware have to look like to bring the marginal cost of a corridor pass down far enough to make continuous inspection possible?
Meet Faraday-1.
The grid of tomorrow demands a level of observability that does not currently exist. We need to know exactly when every bolt on every crossarm on every pole across the country needs to be replaced. We need to know when every branch on every tree along every right-of-way is getting even one inch too close to a conductor.
At Voltair, we’ve always come back to one idea: What if every transmission corridor in America got a LiDAR scan and a full asset inspection every month? And what if the highest fire-risk areas got one every hour?
It sounds ridiculous. Today, a single corridor pass means sourcing aircraft and pilots, mobilizing crews, planning flights around weather and airspace, and then waiting weeks for usable data. At that cost, utilities get a snapshot once a year, if they’re lucky.
So we asked a different question: What would the hardware have to look like to bring the marginal cost of a corridor pass down far enough to make continuous inspection possible?
Meet Faraday-1.
1:30