Minimizing power outages through Avatar Innovations

As our population and need for power grows, the demands on our power systems are increasing and leading to more frequent, unplanned electrical power outages.

This trend is what prompted Cenovus Energy employees Taban Sabih, Senior Electrical Engineer, Downstream Project Support, and Katerina Stawowiak, Commercial Scheduling Manager, Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids, to work on a solution to provide the energy industry with a device for increasing electrical reliability and actionable data for early indication of failures and managing energy grids more efficiently. 

Most failures on underground power cables occur at connection points, often referred to as ‘splices.’ Taban and Katerina recognized that the existing monitoring and testing solutions for underground cables were insufficient in providing information that could be used for proactive maintenance planning and addressing points of poor connection.

This led them to create Splice N Connect, a company developing technology to continuously monitor the connection points on underground power cables and provide industries with data they need to better manage maintenance planning and avoid unplanned power outages. With this technology in place, power might be better optimized to avoid operational or financial impact of Cenovus’s facilities and the overall power grid.

After successfully progressing through the Ignite and Studio phases of the Avatar program, Splice N Connect was one of five teams selected to move forward to progress their concept into a commercial product in December 2023. The concept’s early industry interest and commercialization potential led to industry partners signing letters of intent with Splice N Connect to evaluate the technology for potential implementation in the future.  

Splice N Connect has since incorporated and Taban and Katerina are beginning to develop the hardware and software components. They are hoping to develop the monitoring and predictive tools, which would improve their failure analysis and data collection process.  

“Unplanned power outages should be avoided, as they can cause disruptions to many essential services we rely on every day, says Katerina. “Splice N Connect hopes to offer an affordable solution to counteracting these disruptions to our facilities and daily lives.”

“Cenovus is supporting innovation both directly, by offering the unique development opportunity for employees to participate in the Avatar program, and indirectly, through their donation to the leadership fund as an industry partner,” says Taban. “This fund helps accelerate the process of acquiring development agreements and investment from industry partners.”