--- title: Gridware: The 200 Best Inventions of 2022 description: Find out why Gridware is one of the best inventions of 2022 canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-10T11:08:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:08:21.548Z og:title: Gridware: The 200 Best Inventions of 2022 og:description: Find out why Gridware made this year's list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b709265c1336125/698a373016d8846ce5c3b39c/best-inventions-2022-gridware.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Gridware: The 200 Best Inventions of 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gridware: The 200 Best Inventions of 2022 twitter:description: Find out why Gridware made this year's list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b709265c1336125/698a373016d8846ce5c3b39c/best-inventions-2022-gridware.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 10, 2022 # Real-Time Powerline Monitoring Gridware by [Jillian Mock](/author/jillian-mock/) ## Jillian Mock  When he was 15, Gridware CEO Tim Barat dropped out of high school in Victoria, Australia to become an electrical lineman. In that dangerous job, he realized utilities had no way to monitor physical electrical lines and poles in real time, making it hard to anticipate and address problems like power outages and wildfires. After going back to school for electrical engineering and computer science, Barat created [Gridware](https://www.gridware.io/ "undefined"). The network of solar- and battery-powered sensors—they don’t rely on grid power—is trained with artificial intelligence to recognize vibrations in electrical lines and what they may signal: a truck driving past, high winds, a branch falling on the wires. Each sensor sits on a powerline pole and alerts the utility when it detects a problem. Utilities in California and Washington state have installed Gridware, an upgraded version of which was rolled out in August. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/"},"headline":"Real-Time Powerline Monitoring","datePublished":"2022-11-10T11:08:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:08:21.548Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/","keywords":["list","franchise","ecommerce","best inventions","Best Inventions 2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b709265c1336125/698a373016d8846ce5c3b39c/best-inventions-2022-gridware.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jillian Mock","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jillian-mock/"}],"creator":"Jillian Mock","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b709265c1336125/698a373016d8846ce5c3b39c/best-inventions-2022-gridware.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2022/6226970/gridware/","name":"Real-Time Powerline Monitoring"}}]}] ```