Skyqraft has been chosen as the winner under an Iberdrola initiative that is seeking out start-ups with innovative technology related to energy.
The Stockholm-based outfit was picked from 148 entries from 24 countries as the winner for Iberdrola’s ‘Startup Challenge: Resilience to Natural Disasters’.
Innovations submitted to the contest aim to reduce as much as possible the impacts on infrastructure caused by natural disasters and to minimise the time to restore services for customers.
Skyqraft has developed a drone-powered infrastructure inspection service, managed remotely, to identify risks that could affect power lines and prevent power outages.
Sakina Turabali from Skyqraft said: “This is just the beginning for us. We want to revolutionise the way inspections are done in this industry.
“We are flying unmanned airplanes using high quality images and 360 degree videos, inspecting the distribution grid and provide our customers with a risk assessment system using machine learning automatically detecting any threats.
“Winning this challenge fast forwarded our goal to scale to the US market.”
The team’s proposal includes flying over an area in New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) operations area in New York state, before and after a storm. The solution features 360-degree high definition videos and high-resolution images of the assets inspected, an automated map that pinpoints all the inspection information and faster damage assessment and enhanced images to improve planning and service recovery after a storm.
The pilot phase will last approximately three to six months.
Iberdrola networks business director Armando Martinez said: “Iberdrola is committed to supporting new technologies that improve network reliability and strengthen the electricity system, reducing risks and impacts caused by climate change.
“Storms and severe weather events are ever-increasing, and we supply energy to millions of people around the world, so we must be constantly looking at new innovations.
“We are looking to explore new ways of partnering with start-ups to foster Open Innovation in Iberdrola. The Skygraft concept has great potential and we look forward to working with them.”
If the pilot is successful, Iberdrola will include it among its maintenance tools and Skyqraft will be offered the opportunity to become a supplier.
Iberdrola would also be open to discuss the possibility of making an investment in the Swedish company.