Unlocking Grid Capacity: Advancing Net Zero, Deferring $2 Million/Mile

Forbes

26-05-2025

Worker holding a Heimdall Power 'neuron', the smart sensor supporting dynamic line rating for ... More high-voltage transmission lines.
The energy transition is accelerating—but the infrastructure that delivers electricity isn't keeping pace. As electric vehicles, heat pumps, and AI-driven data centers push demand to record highs, the grid is being pushed to its limits. Transmission lines are congested, interconnection queues are growing, and new infrastructure isn't arriving fast enough.
While policymakers focus on long-term expansion, emerging technologies offer faster, more flexible ways to ease pressure. Advanced conductors, grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), and intelligent control systems are helping utilities increase capacity, reduce congestion, and improve reliability—often without laying new wires.
These innovations won't replace the need for long-term investment, but they can buy time, reduce costs, and accelerate the energy transition by making better use of the infrastructure we already have.
The grid we rely on was built for a different era—centralized, fossil-fuelled, and one-directional. Today's energy system is decentralized and dynamic. Rooftop solar, wind farms, EVs, and digital infrastructure are transforming how—and where—power flows. This shift to two-way, variable energy movement demands a grid that's smarter, more flexible, and more resilient. Meeting this challenge requires more than new generation—it demands significant upgrades to the grid itself.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), achieving climate and energy goals will require adding or refurbishing over 80 million kilometers of grid infrastructure by 2040—effectively doubling the global grid.
A 2023 analysis from the Energy Transitions Commission estimates the world will need to invest $1.3 trillion annually in zero-carbon power and another $0.9 trillion in transmission and distribution to reach net zero. Put simply: for every $100 spent on renewables, about $70 needs to be invested in the grid to ensure that clean energy actually reaches end users.
While this buildout is essential, smarter grid management can relieve pressure in the near term. Unlocking hidden capacity in the current system offers a faster, more efficient way to keep the energy transition moving.
Despite serving as critical infrastructure, most high-voltage lines still lack the sensors needed to understand real-time operating conditions, leaving utilities reliant on outdated static line capacity ratings. Instead of adapting to real world conditions, they must operate under worst-case assumptions. On a cool, breezy day, a line may be capable of carrying 30–40% more power than assumed, safely and reliably. The result is artificially constrained capacity, renewable energy curtailment, and mounting congestion.
Without accurate, real-time data, grid operators are left estimating rather than optimizing and the financial impact is staggering. U.S consumers are paying $20 billion in congestion costs while in Europe that figure is over €4 billion. Meanwhile, more than 80% of renewable energy projects sit idle in interconnection queues—waiting not for permits or panels, but because the grid can't accommodate the power they produce. This isn't a hardware problem—it's a data problem and solving it starts with seeing what's already there.
Installing sensors has historically been slow, costly, and disruptive though—often requiring taking lines offline. Now, new sensor technologies are offering a breakthrough—giving utilities real-time insight into grid performance and revealing hidden capacity already built into the system. In a world running short on time, capital, and carbon budget, this could be a game-changer.
Norwegian scaleup Heimdall Power is pioneering a smarter, faster approach to grid intelligence, using technology that enables safe, cost-effective deployment of sensors on live transmission lines. This opens the door to Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), a powerful way to unlock hidden capacity in the grid.
Heimdall's solution? Small compact sensors called 'Neurons', which can be rapidly deployed onto high-voltage lines using autonomous drones, enabling installation in under 60 seconds without line shutdowns. These smart devices measure real-time environmental and line conditions, like wind speed, temperature, and line sag—the invisible factors that determine how much electricity a line can actually carry at any given moment. By continuously analyzing these inputs, DLR calculates a line's real-time capacity—often allowing it to safely carry more power than outdated, worst-case static ratings would suggest
'Think of our sensors as speedometers for the grid,' CEO Jørgen Festervoll said in an interview. 'Right now, most utilities are driving blind—and slow— just to be safe. We give them real-time visibility.'
The pitch is bold and simple: with smarter technology, we can safely increase transmission line capacity by up to 40% and accelerate the clean energy transition all without laying a single new wire. 'We're the Apple Watch of the power grid,' Festervoll said.
Heimdall's edge is not just its sensors, but how fast it can be deployed. According to Festervoll there is no need for shutdowns, nor for heavy equipment. Entire transmission corridors can be digitized in days, not years—a seismic shift from the traditional infrastructure timeline. This means, says Festervoll, that utilities can defer up to $2 million per mile in new line construction, boost dispatch efficiency by 20%, and accelerate renewable integration by 40%. This is grid modernization that's fast, flexible, and economically compelling.
'We're solving visibility in the most under-instrumented trillion-dollar asset class on the planet,' Festervoll says.
Grids are the backbone of modern life—powering everything from industry and infrastructure to homes and hospitals. Yet for systems so complex, the real surprise isn't that they sometimes fail—it's that they don't fail more often. Trying to manage a modern grid without real-time visibility is like trying to direct air traffic without radar: it works—until it doesn't.
And when it doesn't, the consequences ripple far beyond the power sector. Grid failures can disrupt supply chains, halt public services, and cost economies billions. The recent blackout in Spain and Portugal, triggered by what appears to be a single line failure, revealed just how vulnerable the system can be.
That event highlighted a growing challenge: as power grids become more complex, our ability to manage them with outdated tools is rapidly eroding. Early reports point to failures in voltage control and chronic underinvestment, and the final analysis is expected to include a familiar set of technical recommendations—greater inertia to support renewables, improved trip settings, faster black-start capabilities, stronger cross-border coordination, and sharper attention to cyber risks and early warning signals.
Rather than simply revisiting familiar failures, this moment underscores the need to look forward—and adopt smarter tools. One utility, equipped with Heimdall's real-time data, avoided a similar outcome entirely. When a storm brought down a transmission line, the system showed that cooler temperatures had boosted capacity on a nearby line. Operators rerouted power in real time — and kept the lights on.
That's not just smart tech — that's economic resilience.
Heimdall's technology is part of a much larger opportunity to transform how we manage and optimize the grid. The shift toward smarter, more responsive infrastructure is gaining momentum—and it's not just a niche trend. The global smart grid market is expected to deliver $290 billion in global energy savings by 2029, according to Juniper Research. The International Energy Agency (IEA) echoes this, identifying real-time grid intelligence as essential for decarbonization, electrification, and the coming surge of EVs, heat pumps, and data centers.
But unlocking this potential requires more than just better technology—it demands smarter regulation. Today, most utilities are financially incentivized to build more physical infrastructure, not for using existing infrastructure better. Festervoll explains it bluntly: 'You get paid to pour concrete, not optimize electrons.'
To truly modernize the grid, the IEA is calling for a shift in how utilities are rewarded—focusing on outcomes like visibility, flexibility, and efficiency rather than traditional capital investment. The smart grid revolution isn't just about deploying sensors and software. It's about aligning technology and policy to build a system that's not only bigger, but fundamentally smarter.
In a world where electrification is accelerating, capital is constrained, and climate stakes are rising, knowing what you already have—and using it smarter—may be the most valuable energy asset of all.
As Festervoll says, 'If you don't know what you have, you'll overbuild.' And in today's economy, overbuilding isn't just inefficient — it's unaffordable.