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National Grid Partners

As part of efforts to increase grid resilience across its US properties in the U.S., National Grid planned to expand a substation in Rotterdam, New York. But the surrounding area had no available records of what lay underground, so National Grid’s design team was concerned about buried assets like pipes and cables as they planned out the footprint of the new substation.

Helping customers “see” what’s underground

Industries ranging from construction to utilities to oil and gas spend more than $100 billion every year on excavation and drilling to find out what’s underground. Planners need to know what’s below the surface to complete their projects, but it’s costly to dig up the earth. What’s more, the use of heavy equipment can create greenhouse gas emissions. And unexpected consequences from excavation – like leaks and explosions – delay projects, cost billions of dollars annually and even endanger lives.

Exodigo's mapping technology shines as an alternative to costly, outdated, and risky methods. The startup’s non-intrusive subsurface imaging platform provides a digital, geolocated 3D map of buried assets. Combining multi-sensor fusion and artificial intelligence dramatically improves accuracy and time to map, which reduces the costs associated with unnecessary excavation.

Exodigo’s platform can detect any buried object, whether man-made, rocks and minerals, or even groundwater. The technology works in any terrain, from crowded urban environments to vast rural ones.

What’s the Story?

To mitigate underground risk, National Grid engaged Exodigo in late 2023 to locate all such objects both inside the fence line of the current substation and outside it, where they were planning to expand. Exodigo was asked to identify risk areas and help the National Grid design team avoid striking obstacles.

The startup used its cart platform to scan the area with multiple sensors, camera images, and centimeter-precision GPS to collect more than 500 GB of data per acre. Exodigo’s multi-sensing technology scanned every square foot of terrain to non-intrusively uncover all subsurface assets – known and unknown.

The data was then analyzed and processed with artificial intelligence (AI) and turned into a visual underground network model. This allowed National Grid to "see" the underground and create a complete map of assets, including many unmarked in records. This additional clarity increased design efficiency and reduced overall cost.

The Exodigo Use Case

“Exodigo delivered very promising results with the Rotterdam pilot. The technology looks to be a game changer for us in a space that is critical from project inception to planning, design and engineering, all the way through in-flight construction. The level step-increase in visibility the tech offers is like putting on prescription glasses for the first time and gaining clear vision on what was previously limited and blurry.”

Older or inactive buried assets aren’t always captured accurately in records – if they’re captured at all. By identifying underground obstacles early, companies like National Grid can avoid expensive delays later in a project. Bringing in Exodigo at the design phase let the Rotterdam project team proceed with confidence and avoid strikes, redesigns and delays downstream. "It’s exciting to consider what lies ahead as they hone and refine their technology for our uses,” said Roberts.

Exodigo: Helping customers “see” what’s underground