Monitoring electrical cable health is no easy feat, and it'll take more than a few light bulbs going off in the heads of local innovators to find a solution that meets the needs of Duquesne Light Co., the Pittsburgh-based electrical utility provider.
To do so, the company announced it teamed up with HeroX, a crowdsourcing platform, to launch "The Monitoring Electrical Cable Challenge" in an effort to find a solution capable of monitoring the health of the millions of miles of underground electrical cables it maintains. It's the same platform the company is using to "reimagine" its annual holiday tree of lights display at Point State Park.
Currently, Duquesne Light manually inspects these cables via manholes or with infrared cameras on a semi-yearly basis. With the challenge, the company is hoping to improve on these methods and tools, or find new ones, not only for its own benefit, but potentially for the electrical industry overall.
"We'd love to have a device or technology that looks at the cables that show (it) can run for another 50 years, or we may want to replace this in three years," said Josh Gould, director of innovation at Duquesne Light, who is overseeing the challenge. "We don't yet have that capability and this challenge alone won't get us there, but it's a step in the direction to have a little more insight into that capability."
A crucial element to the challenge is that any such idea or set of ideas would remain the intellectual property of the creator. Duquesne Light, which employs more than 1,700 workers, is interested in licensing the rights to use the new innovation that either addresses its needs directly or even those that emerge which could help the company in other related capacities.
"We're not looking to make money in the sense that we'd financially benefit from someone else's IP," Gould said. "We're really focused on deploying this solution in the grid and in our system, and that's why we've taken this approach. We're thinking that gives us sort of the fastest and least-litigious path to deploy this technology."
The concept of using a crowdsourcing campaign to solve its challenge is one that Gould said isn't common in the electrical industry. He's hoping the idea of doing so will be one that's someday replicated by other companies that work in the sector.
"There hasn't always been a focus in the industry around engaging in a very open and transparent fashion because it requires you to be a little bit vulnerable, that it requires a kind of admission that we have a good process today, but we'd like to make it even better," Gould said. "Culturally, it's not something that utilities have always done a great job at, it's something that we're trying to change. I think it's a sign of strength to say, look, this is an issue we have, this is an issue, by the way, that every underground utility has, we all want to know more about the health of our cable. So why don't we throw it up in the world and see what comes out? That's the goal here."
The challenge will consist of three phases.
Phase 1 will focus on concept proposals and the initial design schemes, while the second phase will concentrate on proof of concepts and prototype demonstrations. By the third phase, those who have promising solutions will partake in a live field test and, if successful, a pilot deployment. Funding will be provided to selected teams through that pilot deployment.
Winning designs will be awarded a share of a $750,000 prize purse. Submissions to the challenge are being accepted from now until 5 p.m. on March 15.
