The U.S. power grid has an efficiency problem. But software upgrades and introducing specialized data could provide relief to strained and congested power lines, according to a new study from the company Gridraven.
The transmission lines that connect generation resources like wind farms and power plants to cities and suburbs are limited by the maximum amount of electricity they can carry. That capacity often depends on the weather. The cap is lower when it’s hot out because power lines can easily overheat; conversely, power lines can carry more electricity when it’s cold or windy.
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Gridraven has offices in Estonia and Austin, Texas, and the company’s team is composed of software engineers and weather data scientists. In an interview with Straight Arrow News, Gridraven CEO Georg Rute said, “we help existing power lines carry more energy.”
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Traffic on power lines is an issue across the country. In Texas, it leads to $1-2 billion a year in extra energy costs.
In a report released Tuesday, the company examined the effects of applying Gridraven software known as Claw to a transmission line in South Texas. The report found Claw software could have allowed 30% more power to flow through the transmission line and saved ratepayers about $2.5 million over the summer months, the company said.
Gridraven is one of several companies at the forefront of Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), the name for optimizing how much power can be sent through transmission lines based on changing weather conditions. As electricity demand increases, energy analysts are looking to solutions beyond building new power plants. DLR has emerged as a promising technology for increasing the gird’s capacity, potentially saving consumers money at a time when utility bills are going up.
How can dynamic line rating help the grid?
A 2019 U.S. Department of Energy study described how grid operators typically make a series of “conservative assumptions” to determine how much power they can send through transmission lines. Those assumptions can result in a fixed rating for how much power a transmission line can handle without overheating.
DLR software works by integrating weather forecasts and adjusting line ratings. Gridraven uses software only, but some DLR solutions involve adding sensors to power lines.
The company focuses on wind. While hurricane-force gusts are damaging to power lines, a moderate breeze can cool them enough to increase how much power they can carry.
“If you have a hot wire, then it’s cooled twice as much if there’s a bit of wind,” Rute said.
Fixed line ratings become a problem for the grid when the amount of power generated exceeds a transmission line’s limit, and power is wasted. In Texas, lower-cost power sources — often wind and solar — are curtailed when transmission lines reach capacity, but the additional power may still be needed. To keep supply steady, a power plant somewhere else in the state will ramp up and send power through a non-congested line.
On the grid run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), congestion costs from turning on expensive power sources while cheaper ones are curtailed adds up to between $1 and $2 billion annually. Utility companies generally pass congestion costs on to ratepayers.
Although DLR cannot eliminate congestion, especially in hot conditions, proponents of grid enhancing technology say it can spot when curtailment is truly necessary, versus when it’s based on assumptions that do not reflect actual weather conditions.
In many cases, Rute said, “there’s actually more capacity in that line, so there is no congestion, therefore the prices can be evened out.”
A 2025 pre-print study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology simulated the effects of DLR on the Texas grid. The study found that the average transmission capacity on the entire grid could increase by 43% in the summer and 52% in the winter by utilizing DLR on only the most thermally constrained power lines.
How does Gridraven’s software work?
While the MIT researchers’ results are based on a system-wide simulation, Gridraven’s new study simulates the effects of its software on one congested transmission line southeast of San Antonio.
The Gridraven Claw uses satellite data and LIDAR scans from the U.S. Geological Survey to create detailed 3D terrain maps. Rute said the system accounts for every tree, building and landscape feature that affects wind patterns at a local level.
The software combines terrain maps around power lines with detailed weather forecasts and utilizes artificial intelligence to predict the temperature of transmission lines.
“Grid operators need to have full resolution about what the wind is doing everywhere on the lines before they can push more [power] through,” Rute said.
And Gridraven’s innovation is allowing grid operators to do this without making any physical changes to power lines.
Several companies are actively deploying DLR technology in the U.S.
Heimdall Power has a software platform; the company also uses drones to install sensors on power lines. The company deployed these sensors on the grid run by an electric cooperative in Minnesota, and found that it increased transmission capacity by 63% during peak power demand, according to a company white paper.
Massachusetts-based LineVision uses LIDAR sensors installed on transmission towers to gather real-time data. That data is combined with AI and weather forecasts. The company said deployment of 42 sensors in Indiana and Ohio helped yield a 40% increase in transmission capacity.
What are the barriers to adopting dynamic line rating?
Rute told SAN he anticipates that incentivizing utility companies to adopt DLR will be the primary barrier to growth.
“[Utilities] don’t have congestion costs on their balance sheet,” Rute said.
Instead, those costs are passed to consumers, so in most cases, installing a DLR solution will not directly lead to increased utility company profits. Additionally, the utility companies need to be motivated by goodwill to save customers money and increase the overall system efficiency.
Demand for power continues to grow, driven largely by the electricity needs of artificial intelligence data centers. While growing demand puts upward pressure on the price paid for electricity, Rute said, “there’s a lot of public pressure for utilities to not raise rates.” And making decisions that keep costs low will lead to greater “social capital” for utility companies.
Making his pitch to utilities, Rute added that Gridraven is “available at the cost of a weather forecast that you already have anyway.”
