Minnesota Energy Company Tests Groundbreaking New Technology
I hear it said nearly every day that “the world is changing.” I think that this is accurate in a lot of ways—some good, some not-so-good—but today I want to highlight something that I consider revolutionary in its own right.
Prisma Photonics and Great River Energy installed a grid-monitoring system across 90 miles in northern Minnesota, according to a January 2025 press release. This new state-of-the-art “PrismaPower” technology will be able to provide real-time monitoring and notification of threats to transmission lines, such as wildfires, icing, wind and physical damage, including downed lines.
Having this information could protect against blackout threats, which increase during the same conditions that produce severe weather. According to Climate Central, there were 64% more “major power outages” from 2011 to 2021 compared to 2000 to 2010. Now that we are in 2025, meteorologists expect more inclement weather in the coming years.
These new programs are called PrismaCircuit and PrismaClimate, and they have plans to be implemented across five critical transmission lines connected to four substations through fiber optic lines in central and northern Minnesota.
“As we work to maintain reliable service for our member-owners throughout Minnesota's distinct seasons, we’re leveraging innovative new technologies that maximize our existing infrastructure investments,” said Priti Patel, vice president and chief transmission officer with Great River Energy, a nonprofit power cooperative that serves 1.7 million people in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The new technology relies on existing optical fiber infrastructure instead of needing installation of physical sensors on power lines, which is common with traditional monitoring solutions. This will effectively eliminate service interruptions.
The company’s website says, “The Interrogator transmits optical pulses that propagate down the fiber. A minute fraction of the light is reflected from each point along the fiber. The Interrogator measures the reflected light to determine the strain, temperature, pressure, and other quantities.”
The system can send high-quality data to computers that will use machine learning to determine possible threats, provide reliable alerts and filter out false-positives or other needless alarms.
Prisma Photonics CEO Eran Inbar says this advanced technology will enhance grid resilience without the complexity and maintenance requirements of traditional sensor-based solutions.
Great River is also testing other new technology, such as Norway-based Heimdall Power’s “magic balls,” (which we swear is what they are really calling them—we did not make that up) sphere-shaped sensors deployed on cables to collect data, maximize capacity and possibly enable more renewable energy use.
As the world continues to change and new technologies arise, it is valuable to keep up to date with these innovations. This is something I could see becoming revolutionary in the built environment that could affect many of Sunco’s customers in the future. I’ll be keeping an eye on this tech, so be sure to follow us for developments!
