A predictive early fault detection (EFD) system that predicts powerline faults that can cause blackouts or bushfires, designed at RMIT University by Melbourne-based IND Technology, is being scaled up for commercial release.

Following impressive results at early sites in Australia, the US and China, the system will now be scaled up and broadly produced after signing a commercialisation agreement with RMIT.

“The most exciting part is this technology’s success in identifying faults that are about to happen through deterioration before they even happen – which solves the problem of reactive network maintenance once damage is already done,” RMIT associate professor and now chief executive of IND Technology Alan Wong says.

Alan says that it will enable more proactive and cost-effective management of electricity network assets. He says that the system is unlike anything else on the market today due to its patented sensing method and data processing algorithm.

“This level of performance means electrical asset inspection every few years will soon be a thing of the past. With the EFD system, the network owners can now monitor every network asset, every second, 24/7 including during extreme weather when asset failures are likely to first appear,” he says.

“I’m very thankful the ideas generated at RMIT will now be able to realise their full potential for social benefit globally.”

RMIT deputy vice-chancellor (research) Professor Callum Drummond states that this agreement reinforces RMIT’s role in delivering high-impact solutions through research: “In this case, the clear benefit of this technology to communities around the world in terms of public safety and continuity of supply of an essential service is the ideal target outcome for RMIT research.”

“It is great to be able to help a local company turn it into a global success.”

Under the agreement, RMIT will retain rights to use the technology for teaching and research purposes.