Summary:

Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) determines how much power can safely flow through transmission lines. Traditionally, grid operators use static ratings, but this leads to significant underutilization of grid capacity. Now you have 3 problems:

1. Grid constraints are causing major bottlenecks for renewable energy integration (Currently, there are over 3,000 GW of renewable projects globally that are waiting for a grid connection. For comparison, global installed renewable capacity in 2022 was 3,300 GW.)
2. Data centers and industrial growth are creating unprecedented demand for power transmission (See State of the Future: AI 2025: Scale! We gonna need 10GW facilities ASAP)
3. Current grid capacity is often artificially limited by conservative static ratings which increases PRICE. High electricity prices are a political problem.

GridRaven have developed a software-only solution for Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) that can predict and optimize power grid capacity without physical sensors or hardware installations. Their approach combines weather forecasting with detailed landscape analysis to accurately predict wind speeds around power lines. While they present as a DLR company, the ultimate business model involves using this grid intelligence in energy markets.

Key Takeaways:

1. The "Dirty Secret": Grid operators currently operate with a known 2-3% error rate in their capacity calculations, sometimes leading to overloading by up to 40% on hot summer days. This rarely-discussed risk is accepted as standard practice, making it hard to sell solutions.
2. The Market Size Strategy: While the DLR software market alone might justify a €1B valuation, the company's real strategy is to use their grid intelligence to enter the much larger energy and power market (worth hundreds of billions).
3. The US Opportunity: The urgent need for grid capacity in the US is driven by a fundamental difference from Europe: while European electricity demand is decreasing (eg LED adoption), US demand is rapidly growing, with Texas alone adding "a Germany's worth of loads" in the next decade, largely driven by data center growth.

Interview:

The DLR market is very small, maybe 500m or something, why are you bothering?

Yes. So I'll tell you our story because we have really good answers to all of these things. On the market size, jumping ahead in the story a bit - Dynamic Line Ratings are technology for unlocking capacity, increasing capacity, and getting more energy through. Yet at the same time, the only reason we have different prices for energy in different countries or zones is capacity constraints.

The way to make money from dynamic line ratings isn't selling dynamic line ratings itself. That's fine, I think it's possible to justify maybe a €1 billion valuation on Dynamic Line Ratings itself - it's on the border of that. While being able to predict power prices and understand where renewables should be connected, that's potentially hundreds of billions.

Almost like a grid intelligence platform or something?

Even more directly just predicting power markets. But - and this is a big exclamation mark - we cannot emphasize that in our communication yet because it's immediately misunderstood what we're doing. Right now, the most important thing for us is to get dynamic line ratings out there as fast as we can and get it into markets. Our mission is increasing and accelerating growth. The only way to actually do that fast is if we can avoid public procurements. I used to work in the grid operation business.

I did my background reading, so I already knew that