Idaho Power Works With Sentient Energy to Modernize Power Grid

Improves reliability by reducing duration of outages

Frisco, TX, October 5^th, 2021– Sentient Energy Inc., a Koch Engineered Solutions company and the leading provider of advanced grid monitoring and analytics for electric utilities, announced today that Idaho Power has chosen Sentient Energy’s intelligent sensing solution to provide advanced fault detection. Sentient Energy’s powerful, integrated platform uses data and analytics to give grid operators unprecedented grid visibility and intelligence for actionable insights and more informed decision-making.

“We take great pride in providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers, and we constantly strive to find new ways to improve the reliability of our systems,” said Bryan Hobson, Engineering Leader at Idaho Power. “It’s critical for us to detect faults quickly and precisely, a process that can be arduous in our service areas, which are often in rural areas with rugged terrain.  Sentient Energy’s experts and customer service teams helped us deploy a solution in record time, which helped us keep overall costs down and start to see initial benefits of intelligent sensors immediately. Using Sentient Energy, we anticipate reducing our response times, reducing patrol costs, and reducing duration of outages by 15-20%.”

Idaho Power is one of the state’s largest electric utilities that generates, transmits, distributes, sells, and purchases electric energy. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho the company serves more than 590,000 customers in a service area spanning an estimated 24,000 square miles across rugged landscapes in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.

The company is modernizing its grid to future-proof the infrastructure and ensure safe and reliable power delivery.  As part of that effort, Idaho Power is implementing Sentient Energy’s MM3^TM and ZM1^TM sensors to provide fault detection. Sentient Energy’s intelligent sensors use advanced algorithms to sense system faults in real-time and wirelessly communicate fault information immediately to the utility control center for integration with SCADA, DMS, or OMS systems. With more precise fault location information, operators can more quickly dispatch crews to the correct location, reducing patrol time and outage duration. The sensors display an LED so field crews can verify fault detection when they arrive.

In addition to using Sentient Energy’s fault detection capabilities as a foundational technology in phase one of Idaho Power’s grid modernization efforts, the utility also plans to tap into Sentient Energy’s industry leading analytics capabilities for phase two. As Hobson explains, “Analytics will also become important to provide advanced troubleshooting information and proactive operational data on our system. Sentient Energy will give us unprecedented insights that could enable us to quickly fix failing equipment before causing an outage.”

Sentient Energy’s intelligent sensing solution is used globally by utilities of every size and is deployed in over 25 of North America’s largest utilities. To learn more about how the company’s solutions reduce outages by up to 20% and patrol cost savings by 60%, visit: https://www.sentientenergy.com/solutions/.

About Sentient Energy

Sentient Energy, a Koch Engineered Solutions company, is the premier provider of intelligent sensing, data analytics, optimization, and control technologies for the distribution grid. Sentient Energy’s hardware and software solutions help electric utilities make data-driven decisions to enhance the delivery of reliable, safe, and efficient power. With the industry’s only Grid Analytics System that covers the entire distribution network, Sentient Energy leads the global market with the largest network of line sensor deployments in North America, gathering rich data in real time for predictive insights and strategic grid management. Sentient Energy’s Grid Edge Control solutions enable utilities to reduce energy costs at the grid edge through Volt-VAR optimization, conservation voltage reduction, and peak demand reduction. Sentient Energy partners with leading communications network providers. For more information, visit www.sentientenergy.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sentient Energy Media Contact:
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