AI company wants to cut climate risk and prevent wildfires

A volunteer works to extinguish a wildfire. Climate change and a warming planet have increased the risk to electrical grids and other infrastructure as extreme heat and cold overwhelm capacity and damage equipment. — Reuters

An artificial intelligence company that counts some of the largest US utilities as its clients raised US$60mil (RM251.70mil) to help energy and infrastructure companies prevent fires, outages, explosions and worker accidents.

The investment round, led by Energize Ventures, includes power companies American Electric Power Co and National Grid Plc, Urbint said in a statement on Tuesday. The company combines environmental and infrastructure data to foresee and head off damage from incidents ranging from storms to excavation.

“Our vision is to build a world with zero safety incidents and part of that is definitely saving lives,” Corey Capasso, founder and chief executive officer of Urbint, said in an interview.

Climate change and a warming planet have increased the risk to electrical grids and other infrastructure as extreme heat and cold overwhelm capacity and damage equipment.

Examples of the company’s work include analysing wind speed and duration to advise a power company where to shut off electricity or prioritising the “dig requests” made before excavation near buried equipment, Capasso said.

Urbint, founded in 2017, started out by applying its technology to underground utility infrastructure to identify areas at risk of leaks or damage and its customers now include utilities like National Grid, Southern Company, Dominion Energy Inc and ConEdison. Urbint has raised a total of US$109mil (RM457.25mil) and has about 100 employees. – Bloomberg