For centuries, borders – for nations and individuals ‒ have been disputed. Disputes have led to wars and lawsuits. Kings and presidents worry about the sanctity of their countries. Homeowners are concerned for their financial wellbeing. Before the advent of surveying instruments, borders were crudely marked by geographical anomalies such as rivers, hills, cliffs, etc. For individuals, homesteads were often marked with a pile of rocks or a stake in each corner.

Later, governments sent surveyors to measure and define territories and borders. Everything became more clearly demarcated. Increased accuracy in borders assures that countries do not accidently intrude on their neighbor’s land. Homeowners gain comfort in knowing exactly the sizes of their properties. That is important since homeowners do not want to pay taxes on property they do not own, just as municipalities need to be sure they do not fail to collect the appropriate taxes.

Today, our lives are tied to where we are located, primarily because we all possess cellphones with Global Positioning Systems (GPS). With the help of GPS, we can navigate from one place to another, just as we pinpoint locations of people, places, and possessions. For businesses, precise asset location is doubly important – financial and risk-management implications when building new infrastructure.

It does not matter whether we are talking about locating oil and gas wells, pipelines, and hydrocarbon production facilities, or wind turbines and solar panels. Utilities need to know where to position pilons for high tension power lines, increasingly critical in the growing renewable energy market. What about those cell towers? Every one of them needs to be precisely positioned, as do signal repeaters, for the system to work efficiently. Even better, think about landing SpaceX’s rocket boosters. This is not like horseshoes and hand grenades where close is good enough. The rocket company’s business model depends on successfully landing those boosters.

Locating assets precisely is a data management issue, which means data accuracy. But data accuracy begins with having an accurate base map of areas to precisely mark where assets are located. Every data point will have a multi-dimensional location that can be read by computers to locate the asset’s position. With everything in today’s world requiring specific locations, the volume of data is growing exponentially, offering opportunities and challenges. As more infrastructure is destined to be built, demand for accurate positioning data will only grow. The need to manage that data will also grow.

For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed Whitestar’s Director (Dan O’Connor) and VP of Business Development (Mark Woloszyk) about the company’s land mapping software. Whitestar is a provider of infrastructure planning data and software mapping products focused on helping oil & gas, utility, telecommunications, renewables, forestry, railways, and mining companies digitize and spatialize land data records. For more information on Whitestar, please visit whitestar.com.

Background: Founded in 1990, Whitestar initially offered data management consultancy services related to geographic information systems (GIS), such as data clean up, transition, etc. In 1999, Whitestar acquired Platte River Digital Cartography and began developing a subscription-based GIS data product offering. Today, the company serves……..…..READ MORE

Originally released in 2017 to help energy companies and legal professionals uncover decision-critical information within complex land and lease contracts, ThoughtTrace has evolved its proprietary software into a multi-discipline platform that is pre-built for specific industries and use cases, including financial services, technology, healthcare, energy, and law. Leveraging artificial intelligence to complement human expertise, ThoughtTrace identifies critical information in seconds, saving time and resources previously required to search through vast quantities of data manually.

Founded in 1983, Advanced Industrial Devices (AID) has evolved over its nearly 40 years in business from primarily an electric motor distributor to a leading provider of electric motor automation and control solutions across the United States. AID designs and sells custom variable frequency drive control systems (VFD) that are utilized across a diverse set of applications within the oil and gas and industrial sectors. The investment from Black Bay will help support AID’s customer demand and expand the Company’s manufacturing, engineering, and service capabilities to capitalize on the growing market for electric motors and VFDs.

Founded in 2010, AutoGrid is a leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven optimization for distributed energy resources (DERs). AutoGrid’s AI-powered Virtual Power Plant and Distributed Energy Resources Management Platform offers a sustainable alternative to dirty and expensive fossil-fuel-dependent backup power plants by managing and deploying additional untapped capacity from batteries, electric vehicles, and flexible load. The acquisition will enable AutoGrid to expand into new geographies and empower energy companies globally with the tools needed to add 1,000+ GW of renewable and distributed energy resources to the grid in the coming decade.

Xage Security designs and develops a blockchain-protected security platform for industrial IoT (Internet of Things). The Xage Fabric accelerates and simplifies the way enterprises secure, manage and transform digital operations across operational technology, information technology, and the cloud. Xage Security solutions include Identity & Access Management, remote access, and dynamic data security, all powered by the Xage Fabric. The investment by SCF will help Xage Security grow within the energy and industrial sectors.

Related Press Release: SCF Ventures Invests in Xage Security

Clairifi offers end-to-end reporting capabilities on environmental and regulatory requirements, minimizing the burden around emissions management while maximizing tax savings and improving operational efficiency. Validere is the leading all-in-one commodity management platform for the energy industry. The acquisition of Clairifi strengthens Validere’s ESG offerings to now include regulatory reporting capabilities and provides energy companies with access to expert ESG advisors, who can help businesses assess their ESG strategies and make the right decisions for driving efficiency and sustainability with speed and ease.

Energy Technology Musings

Knowing Precisely Where Your Assets are Located is Critical in Today’s World