Pointerra secures $2.47m US Department of Energy contract to enhance grid resilience and reliability
Pointerra (ASX: 3DP) has been awarded a $2.47 million contract by the US Department of Energy (DOE) aimed at boosting the reliability of electricity supply .
The end-to-end digital twin solutions specialist’s unique Pointerra3D system will feature in a new program aimed at evaluating the impacts of certain grid resilience investments under various climate change scenarios in the US north-east.
This will help electric utilities optimise their resource allocation, enhance the overall resilience of the power grid and reduce the frequency and severity of power outages.
Risk assessment model
Pointerra will work with three electric utilities (Avangrid, Eversource and National Grid) and a similar number of university partners (Cornell University, University at Albany – State University of New York and the University of Connecticut) to develop a comprehensive risk assessment model and economic analysis.
The program will assist the utilities with formulating a cost-benefit methodology to assess the long-term grid resilience value of a variety of investments including asset hardening, vegetation management and line undergrounding activities.
Digital twins
Pointerra will acquire and process 2D and 3D data to build digital twins of various circuits in the service territories of the Pointerra3D utility partners and then use Pointerra3D to provide scenario analysis capabilities to evaluate the impacts of the various investments under the different scenarios.
The program will conclude with the provision of a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the outage reduction efficiency of various resilience investment strategies.
The DOE intends to use the outcomes of the program to create scalable models across multiple regions throughout North America.
Oversubscribed raising
The new contract award follows Pointerra’s completion at the end of May of an oversubscribed placement to institutional, professional and sophisticated investors to raise $2.05m.
The placement was cornerstoned to the tune of $1.45m by three institutional investors, including a US-based institutional investor with a background in global technology who was previously part of the management team of a large global venture capital fund.
Funds from the placement will support strategic initiatives in 2025, including the recruitment of enterprise sales professionals to deliver on existing opportunities and shorten the sales cycle.