Spire’s Data Used in Winning Solutions for the Deloitte Gravity Challenge

March 11, 2022

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Blog

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Weather & Climate

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Frazer-Nash Consultancy
Tenchijin, Inc.
Helyx SIS Ltd.

Written by
Elliott Wobler
Technical Solutions Engineer

With the official launch of Deloitte’s GRAVITY Challenge 04 in 2022, Spire has renewed its commitment as a Data and Technology Provider for the “space innovation program connecting real world problems with the people who can solve them.”

From the GRAVITY Challenge website: “The GRAVITY Challenge brings end-users, data providers and innovators together to solve some of the most pressing economic, social and environmental problems we’re facing on earth today.”

In the previous installment of GRAVITY Challenge 03, Spire’s technical solution consultants had the pleasure of working with inspiring teams from all over the world who developed wide-ranging solutions to some of our planet’s greatest challenges. These challenges were proposed by organizations such as NASA Harvest, Amazon Web Services, Lufthansa, the UK Hydrographic Office, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group, ElectraNet, Bx, and Roche Australia.

“Spire joined GRAVITY Challenge as a data and technology provider in 2021. Since then, Spire has had a significant role in enabling Innovator solutions across the world, by providing them with access to unique datasets such as aviation, maritime, weather and earth-intelligence. In my role as GRAVITY’s data and technology coordinator, it has been a pleasure to work with the Spire team to find new ways to collaborate and support innovators. Spire is a valued member of the GRAVITY Challenge community and is critical to the success of the solutions put forward by innovators.”
Geraldine Baca Triveno
Specialist Senior Manager, Deloitte Space
GRAVITY Challenge Data & Technology Coordinator

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In GRAVITY Challenge 03, which ran from March to December of 2021, three different teams of innovators won their respective challenges with the help of Spire’s data and technical insights. While all of the participating groups deserve recognition for their brilliant contributions, Spire would like to specifically recognize these three winners. Below are details on these innovations as described by their creators:

Frazer-Nash Consultancy

Gravity Challenge:

The challenge was to help the Australian electricity transmission company ElectraNet by accurately detecting electricity line sag to ensure public and environment safety and enable greater renewable energy output.

The Solution using Spire’s Data:

Frazer-Nash Consultancy has developed a new way for South Australia’s electricity transmission network operator, ElectraNet, to accurately predict transmission line-sag to ensure better public safety and enable greater efficiencies across the network. Known as PowerMET (Prediction Optimisation for Weather Effects on Ratings Monitoring & Evaluation Tool), it estimates the local weather conditions along line corridors to maximize line capacity and more accurately determine the network’s operational risk profile.

By combining space-derived meteorological data provided by Spire Weather and local topography modeling, an accurate microclimatic model predicts temperature, wind speed and wind direction. This hyper-local data can be used to more accurately determine the line temperature and allowable current in each span of the transmission line, and hence the allowable current for the entire line.

ElectraNet owns and operates more than 5,600km of transmission lines in South Australia and this innovative micro-climate modeling tool is positioning them as industry leaders in network optimization in decarbonization with advanced modeling.

This digital innovation initiative is a catalyst for many other trusted digital solutions in renewable energy and wildfire mitigation with space data.

“To maximize the safe use of its assets, ElectraNet needed to accurately predict line-sag across South Australia. Our solution provides localized weather conditions, enabling accurate calculations of the sag for each 400m span over the entire network.
It offers ElectraNet a pathway to reducing weather station investment costs and enables greater flexibility for its renewable energy exports from South Australia to the other states. Frazer-Nash is looking forward to working with ElectraNet to take this work into the scale phase, to potentially roll it out across the entire South Australian transmission network.”
Nigel Doyle
Group Leader, Asset Performance
Frazer-Nash Consultancy

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“Using Spire’s space data will allow PowerMET to capture, store, analyze, report, predict and advise, ultimately an end-to-end operational Digital Twin to drive decarbonization on the transmission network”
Rita Arrigo
Digital Innovation Lead
Frazer-Nash Consultancy

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About Frazer-Nash:

Frazer-Nash is a leading systems, engineering and technology company. We help organizations deliver innovative engineering and technology solutions to make lives safe, secure, sustainable, and affordable. Read more.

Tenchijin, Inc.

Gravity Challenge:

The challenge was to help improve crop health by reducing soil degradation while also addressing the challenge of carbon sequestration.

The Solution using Spire’s Data:

Soil degradation is an increasingly important issue worldwide because of adverse climate change effects. Consequently, yield and revenues plummet while prices skyrocket. Tenchijin is contributing to soil health enhancement through intercropping by designing Carbon-Health, an A.I powered solution. Carbon-Health analyzes satellite data and recommends growing the companion crop that has the highest carbon sequestration potential and synergy with the existing orchard. The platform matches the growth condition of the crops (temperature, soil, humidity) with the Bx orchard environment (temperature, rain, solar irradiance, soil moisture).

In this respect, Spire Weather‘s data is of paramount importance as they are instrumental in enabling Tenchijin to deliver reliable, granular and accurate insights and metrics to Bx. With the intuitive Carbon-Health solution, agribusinesses can quickly visualize their land’s key performance indicators and enhance their income through carbon-driven ancillary revenues. Ultimately, mankind will live in a healthier environment and have access to healthier food at a fair price as purchasing power increases.

“Tenchijin thanks the Gravity Challenge 3.0’s team. Their efficient organization and comprehensive advice are instrumental to the successful delivery of Tenchijin’s competitive solution to its customers. The program helped us in delivering compelling and concise business materials and demonstrating the technical feasibility and commercial viability of our solution. Tenchijin acknowledges the Spire Weather team. They are highly knowledgeable in their datasets, have been reactive with our requests, and highly supportive for us to navigate and use their data to visualize the best fit between land and intercrop.”
Dr. Adrien Lemal
Business Engineer
Tenchijin, Inc.

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About Tenchijin:

Tenchijin, Inc. is a start-up company that utilizes big data captured in space to revolutionize land assessment and provide a fuller evaluation of land. We develop business solutions using high-precision, high-resolution earth observation satellite data and our proprietary land evaluation engine. We are recognized as a JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) STARTUP that conducts projects using JAXA’s intellectual property and knowledge. Our company was also established by JAXA staff and developers with expertise in the agricultural IoT field. Read more.

Helyx SIS Ltd.

Gravity Challenge:

The challenge was to deconflict cetacean (whale and dolphin) distribution with vessel traffic to alleviate ship strikes.

The Solution using Spire’s Data:

Helyx developed a flexible, customisable workflow to create hazard and vulnerability zones around the world, to assist in deconfliction through shipping regulations and awareness of the issues.

We utilized Spire Maritime‘s AIS data in the first phase of the challenge. It provided a useful granular record of vessel tracks in our areas of interest. We were able to easily filter the records by vessel size and speed, which are known to be directly linked to the risk of vessel strikes. The data provides a risk layer in our model that assists those in the maritime community to know which areas are most pressured over time. We combine this with our vulnerability models to provide a comprehensive view.

“We have really enjoyed getting involved with the Gravity Challenge. It has presented us the opportunity to grow our technical and commercial capabilities, and to work with fantastic organizations and data providers such as Spire, the UKHO and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) group. There is nothing like hands-on prototyping to really allow you to think through the various problems as you navigate the route to market.”
Dr. Anneley Hadland
Head of Remote Sensing
Helyx Secure Information Systems Limited

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About Helyx:

Helyx is a professional services company specializing in the provision of information management, exploitation, assurance, and geospatial information systems services and solutions. We provide access to a wealth of expertise to facilitate informed decision making. Our range of services encompass technical consultancy services and solutions, remote sensing, data analytics, training design, development and delivery, to name but a few disciplines, and we are at the forefront of a number of innovative research and development programmes. Read more.