Pointerra (ASX:3DP) has announced its successful receipt of US$1.6M in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Pointerra will use its 3D civil infrastructure software to model a series of power grid resilience simulations for the DOE. Hot weather in 2024 and recent years has, at times, crippled some of the older parts of America’s utilities infrastructure.
In Houston, hot weather has partially melted overhead cables used on train lines at multiple points in the last half decade. Train tracks themselves have also warped, referred to as ‘sun kinks.’
(If you want to see how bad the weather is in the United States, keep an eye on natural gas futures – as A/C demand peaks in cold or hot snaps and power stations buy more gas, speculators tend to drive prices upward.)
In something of a rarity for an ASX announcement, the company directly referenced climate change on Friday.
“The Program will use Pointerra3D to evaluate the impacts of various grid resilience investments under forecasted climate change scenarios, providing a best practice approach to determine optimal resilience investments,” Pointerra wrote.
The company will be teaming up with utilities and universities in “select Northeast US [regions].”
Pointerra’s risk assessment model will also inform an economic analysis with both assets intended to assist utilities “reduce the frequency and severity of power outages.”
Pointerra expect the scope of works to last 12 months.
Pointerra last traded at 3.6cps.