AES Seeking Unmanned Technological Solutions for Inspections
In an effort to help solve a billion-dollar problem, and improve on safety measures related to inspections, the AES Corp., in partnership with NineSigma, has announced an Open Innovation Competition to find solutions for conducting inspections at power plants during times of extreme heat, using unmanned technologies.
An estimated $1 billion is lost in power capacity thanks to a large amount of megawatts being offline in response to outage-related inspections. This in turn reduces the ability of electric grids to absorb variable renewable sources like wind and solar. Personnel are then faced with the arduous task of conducting inspections and repairs after outages, but only after temperatures become safe enough for them to inhabit their working area.
To counter these losses and cut back on the time necessary to wait for heating conditions to become safe enough to work in, AES is calling on other companies, consultants, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and inventors to create new, alternative ways to conduct inspections, and get plants back online quicker, through using unmanned technologies.
For AES President and CEO Andrés Gluski, collaboration is going to be the key to solving this complex issue.
“AES takes our mission of improving lives seriously and recognizes that today’s energy solutions must evolve to meet tomorrow’s needs,” Gluski said in a company press release. “Engaging and collaborating with great thinkers outside our company and industry allows us to extend our internal innovation capabilities to create the best solutions for the future.”
AES will accept proposals until Feb. 28, 2017, and will award three winners at AES’ global Innovation Congress in July, 2017.
