The small community of Austin in Delta county, Colorado, is home to our extreme weather test facility. In early 2020, we equipped 10 power poles with Hayden Data IoT smart sensor devices, that have since reliably measured data in the field. The units monitor the structural health of the poles they are installed on, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind-speed and -direction, rainfall, detect smoke, and provide visuals from the field.
Going into their second winter of operations on site, on January 2nd, we measured a new record low since the original installation. That morning, the temperature dropped to -3.8°F (-19.9°C). Remarkably, however not rare for the Western Slope of Colorado, the maximum temperature that day rose to 59°F (15°C). The same pattern of high amplitude temperature range variations repeated several times over the following days, putting our devices’ resilience to the test. Yet, they have been and continue to perform reliably.
Accurate, reliable and localized data on temperature, among other parameters, are key to some of our technology’s applications, such as dynamic line rating (DLR) for HV transmission lines.
