MEPPI’s POWER-I Keeps Electrical Substations Safe with Advanced AI, Computer Vision and Robots!

Did you know there are more than 60,000 substations in the U.S. that require human-based periodic routine inspections? Electric utilities are constantly looking for ways to reduce the operations and maintenance costs associated with these substations while ensuring increased reliability and resiliency of the overall power grid.

MEPPI has developed the Power-I® Intelligent Condition Based Critical Infrastructure Monitoring System to address this challenge. Power-I is an advanced analytics platform that utilizes computer vision technology and machine learning to perform virtual inspections and analysis of electrical substations and other critical infrastructures.

By autonomously patrolling critical infrastructure facilities using real-time video-based data from a variety of fixed and/or mobile sensor platforms, including Boston Dynamics’ Spot® robot, Power-I can automatically notify utility teams of any abnormalities to help maintain equipment reliability and security. These abnormalities can include general equipment deficiencies (rust, corrosion, cracks, component overheating, oil and gas leaks), facility deficiencies (vegetation overgrowth, animal activity), security deficiencies (intrusion attempts, criminal acts, equipment theft), as well as alerting for changes in normal equipment operating conditions by reading analog gauges, checking sight glasses for nominal oil levels and reading operation counters.

Power-I is MEPPI’s first software product that was envisioned, vetted and currently being developed in-house. The platform was developed using an Agile product development methodology. Unlike traditional product development where lengthy complicated specifications are created, Agile development seeks to develop a minimally viable product (MVP) using small chunks of work called “sprints.” These sprints enable new features to be released as often as every two weeks and then are vetted by the customer. This agility allows MEPPI to build, test, release, and validate new functionality rapidly and provides the flexibility to pivot as required.