More than a million kilometers of high-pressure pipelines, often buried underground, run through countries supplying gas and energy to businesses and communities worldwide. These pipelines are subject to various risks such as unauthorized construction by third parties or dangerous agricultural activity.
SuperVision Earth Space (SVS) is a pipeline monitoring solution which uses proprietary AI algorithms to analyze satellite data, detect and regularly report on various risks to infrastructure. The algorithms behind SVS process latest radar and optical images for timely and accurate risk detection.
The SVS monitoring solution is particularly designed for gas pipeline operating companies. The protection of underground infrastructure is a complex task and incidents, while rare, can cost millions. Regular satellite monitoring of pipelines can help gas companies/operators spot risks they become incidents.
Germany and Europe
The product consists of a satellite-based risk detection system which can act as an alternative or complement to helicopters in regular monitoring of gas pipelines. The main components of the product are a cloud-based backend process, which acquires and prepares satellite images of the customer’s pipelines from several different sources, an AI model which detects potential risks in the images, another process which aggregates the results into a format suitable for the customer and a web-GIS application in which the detected risks are displayed.
Our solution gives customers access to an additional stream of information, especially suited for fast and frequent detection of potentially harmful activity. This is especially valuable in cases where other types of monitoring (aerial, patrolling) are infrequent or not allowed in certain areas.
SuperVision Earth and its consortium partners have been regularly testing, validating, and certifying the SVE solution by monitoring the high-pressure pipeline grids monthly. Ultimately, Terranets and Entega AG, both consortium partners, have been receiving monthly updates in the form of reports sent in the SVS Web-GIS application.
Based on the helicopter detections from consortium partners, the activities and actions discovered by Artificial Intelligence and Quality Assessment were compared, and the KPI’s computed, show promising and useful indicators demonstrating the modifications needed for the product’s continued development, growth, and success.
In the second part of the activity, the DVGW, the German regulation authority for transmission system operators, was involved to guarantee the inputs of experts in the German gas and water industry are sufficiently heard and included.
In February 2022, the project was successfully concluded with a final review. The main objective of the project was to develop a commercially viable MVP of SVS which the contractor could successfully achieve. The outcome of the de-risking activity phase is a product which can monitor pipeline grids on a weekly basis with the help of satellite data, AI, and a unique quality assurance tool. Executing over seven additional pilot projects in parallel to the InCubed activity we see a clear demand for this satellite-based solution for the monitoring of high-pressure gas pipelines.