Duquesne Light Deploys 1,700 GridScope Sensors Across
- News Power Quality Standards & Compliance
Marin Holt
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- 6 minutes read
- DLC deployed 1,700+ Gridware GridScope sensors across Allegheny and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania
- Each sensor contains 13 measurement components recording environmental, physical, electrical, and structural data
- U.S. electricity customers averaged 11 hours of interruptions in 2024, nearly double the previous decade
- An April 2024 storm affected 300,000 DLC customers, requiring replacement of 300 transformers and 500+ poles
- DLC received a $19.7 million DOE grant plus $21 million in utility-funded grid modernization investments
Duquesne Light Company (DLC) deployed more than 1,700 Gridware GridScope sensors across its distribution network in Allegheny and Beaver counties, Pennsylvania, making it the first electric utility in the state to adopt the grid-edge monitoring technology. The solar-powered sensors, which include battery backup to remain operational during outages, detect equipment failures, vegetation contact, and downed conductors in real time across DLC’s 600,000-customer service territory.
What the Sensors Measure
Each GridScope sensor contains 13 distinct measurement components that record environmental, physical, electrical, and structural data from distribution poles. The devices transmit alerts directly to DLC’s operations center, enabling crews to pinpoint fault locations and receive diagnostic information before arriving on-site. DLC initially targeted the technology at its legacy four-kilovolt distribution circuits, which lacked the visibility of newer 23-kilovolt infrastructure.
The utility piloted the sensors in 2024 on three of its worst-performing circuits, which had been prone to equipment failures and fallen conductors. Based on those results, DLC expanded to a full-scale rollout across its service territory in late 2025. Crews now locate and resolve faults in a fraction of the time previously required, according to Richard Saporito, consulting engineer in DLC’s Advanced Grid Solutions group.
Critical Analysis
The 13-component GridScope sensors provide continuous electrical waveform monitoring on 4 kV legacy distribution circuits that previously had no visibility into power quality events. DLC legacy 4 kV distribution circuits experienced chronic equipment failures and conductor drops.
5-Year Projection
By 2031, operational data from facilities like this will become the standard requirement for securing interconnection agreements, as ISOs prioritize proven Gridware GridScope Sensors profiles.
Critical Perspective
Duquesne Light’s 1,700 GridScope sensors across a 600,000-customer territory yields one sensor per roughly 353 customers — adequate coverage for large-section fault location but thin for the sub-feeder fault isolation and vegetation contact detection the program describes. The $19.7 million DOE grant covers hardware deployment; Duquesne has not disclosed ongoing data management, cellular connectivity, and sensor maintenance costs, which for comparable grid-edge sensor networks have averaged 18-22% of initial capital per year across the first five operating years. Pacific Gas & Electric’s comparable pole-top sensor deployment beginning in 2020 reduced ignition events by 68% in instrumented zones — but those zones represented 12% of its distribution network, not the systemic coverage DLC appears to be claiming here. The question Pennsylvania regulators and DLC customers should be asking: how many of the 1,700 sensors are located in the highest-risk vegetation encroachment corridors, and what is the utility’s committed crew dispatch response time after a downed conductor alert?
Why It Matters
U.S. electricity customers experienced an average of 11 hours of interruptions in 2024, nearly double the average from the previous decade. An April 2024 storm alone knocked out power to 300,000 DLC customers, with some waiting up to nine days for restoration. That event required replacing 300 transformers, 100 miles of wire, and more than 500 utility poles. Real-time sensor data addresses this vulnerability by shifting utilities from reactive outage response to predictive fault identification.
The deployment is part of DLC’s broader grid modernization program, which includes a $19.7 million U.S. Department of Energy grant and $21 million in utility-funded investments over five years. DLC is also expanding LineVision dynamic line rating technology across seven additional transmission lines, which has demonstrated up to 25% increases in transmission capacity. The GridScope deployment earned DLC the Fortnightly Charles Steinmetz Top Innovator Award for Network and Grid Operations in 2025.
