Google Monitors Power Lines
Auckland electricity company Vector has partnered with X, Google's moonshot factory, to revolutionise New Zealand's power grid monitoring using AI-powered technology called GridAware that can automatically inspect power lines and predict maintenance needs.
This groundbreaking collaboration aims to virtualise the country's largest electricity network and represents one of the most ambitious AI infrastructure projects undertaken in New Zealand.
The partnership emerged in September 2021 when Vector announced its strategic collaboration with X, positioning New Zealand as a unique testbed for advanced grid technology.
This collaboration represents a significant shift from traditional reactive maintenance approaches to proactive grid management, with the technology designed to create complete digital models of electricity networks.
Google X's Tapestry platform serves as the technological foundation for the New Zealand electricity monitoring initiative, representing a unified AI-powered system designed to make electric grids fully visible and manageable. The platform uses advanced machine learning algorithms to analyse vast networks of power lines, poles, and transformers, shifting the industry from manual inspections to automated intelligence systems.
GridAware specifically implements this technology through a combination of drones and helicopters that capture comprehensive visual imagery of Auckland's entire overhead network, with AI systems trained to assess the condition of poles and wires automatically.
Vector estimates that every 2.5 years, GridAware will complete approximately 170,000 inspections of the entire overhead network, dramatically reducing the time and cost associated with traditional field surveys while enabling real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance capabilities.
