Electrical Grid Monitoring (EGM) is making the bold claim that its patented Accurate Fault Location and Detection (AFLD) solution is the first technology that can accurately locate both the time and location of power distribution‑grid faults to “within a single pole‑span distance.”
The company argues these capabilities could reduce U.S. customer power outage times from 3-5 hours to approximately one hour, and related utility crew-time costs by 80% from $7 billion annually to around $1 billion annually, based on published industry outage statistics.
The EGM fault-location solution was independently tested in a blind study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), which then provided test data on fault location accuracy to EGM. According to EGM analysts, the study results, which consisted of 26 blind scenarios, “showed promise” that EGM’s patented Accurate Fault Location and Detection (AFLD) solution can locate multiple power distribution‑grid faults to within a single pole‑span distance.
“We are pleased that the capabilities of EGM’s grid-fault location detection technology have been successfully validated through independent testing at NLR,” said Alex Levran, Ph.D., CEO of Electrical Grid Monitoring. “Our AFLD technology marks a significant advancement in grid‑reliability innovation by delivering an affordable solution that is unique in its ability to accurately identify both the time and location of a fault, which have traditionally been two of the most costly and time-consuming aspects of power-outage resolution.”
U.S. utilities spend approximately $7 billion annually to dispatch crews for locating and repairing 2.3 million power outages. Typical power outages last 2-3 hours, but challenging terrain can extend outages to 7 hours or more. While extreme weather events receive the bulk of the attention, most interruptions are caused by everyday distribution faults such as branches on laterals, insulator failures and momentary events.
In its 2025 Report on Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security, the DOE warned that absent new firm capacity and continued retirement of reliable generation, customer outages could increase by up to 100 times by 2030, with outages rising to more than 800 hours annually in some regions. U.S. power reliability metrics continue to worsen: System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) scores have risen nearly 300% since 2010, and Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) metrics have increased by 160%, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
EGM’s system also collects electrical, mechanical and environmental data—such as voltage, cable temperature, humidity, wind speed, and powerline movement. These parameters could help utilities reduce the duration and risk of faults.
The EGM Meta-Alert System offers a suite of applications, including power quality, wildfire protection, fault location, dynamic line ratings and general telemetry. EGM deploys clusters of sensors at strategic feeder locations. Each sensor clamps directly onto power lines, capturing fault signatures and transmitting data in real-time to the EGM Meta-Alert software, which uses algorithms to triangulate fault locations.
EGM is currently working with the Israel Electric Corporation and multiple U.S. investor‑owned utilities and cooperatives to deploy its technology on live distribution networks.
