The IEC has announced a strategic investment in Prisma Photonics, an Israeli start-up company that has developed a unique solution for monitoring critical infrastructure. The investment is estimated at several million dollars and comes about six months after the companies announced the first collaboration of its kind in Israel, in which Prism Photonics monitors the national electricity transmission system using fiber optics.
The system uses the IEC’s fiber optic system and is able to monitor long sections of about 100 km to warn of various faults and problems in the power grid, damage to transmission lines and poles, abnormal weather phenomena and is able to locate accuracy of problems to the nearest power source.
“The Israel Electric Company strives to place itself at the forefront of the world’s most advanced companies and is constantly working to assimilate advanced technologies that will enable it to meet the major tasks it faces,” says Ofer Bloch, IEC CEO.
“Prism Photonics brings an innovative paradigm, which has been proven in the field, and changes everything we know about monitoring critical infrastructure.
“When a strategic customer also becomes a strategic partner, it is a huge expression of trust in our solution,” says Dr. Eran Inbar, CEO of Prisma Photonics. “The IEC, as an innovative entity, entered into a partnership with us six months ago. The current investment testifies to HHI’s commitment to promoting the electricity sector in Israel, by introducing innovation to this market.
“Already today, our system has transformed the fiber optic infrastructure deployed in the IEC’s elite network into a sequence of highly sensitive sensors capable of detecting faults and alerting them to their exact location up to the nearest power pole in real time without additional sensor installations on transmission lines.”