BRUGG Pipes & EKT Leak Monitoring
How LaGrand combines satellite thermal imagery and GIS data to identify underground heat loss and pipeline defects from space.
Context & The Infrastructure Deficit
Underground district heating pipes are crucial components of Europe's transition to localized, low-carbon thermal energy. However, much of this pipe network was built between 1960 and 1990. Aging insulation and structural fatigue trigger silent leaks that go unnoticed for weeks, resulting in massive primary energy and hot water loss.
Finding these hot spots traditionally requires intensive, manual search efforts (taking 1 to 5 days) or carbon-heavy helicopter thermography flights costing €10,000 to €15,000 per local scan. Without proactive tools, grid operators are forced to act reactively when a pipe bursts during peak winter loads.
Project Ambitions
Together with our strategic partner BRUGG Pipes and pilot partner EKT (Energie & Kraftwerke Thurgau), LaGrand set out to replace reactive maintenance cycles with an automated, remote satellite monitoring platform.
- Map entire municipal networks on a continuous, weekly schedule.
- Bypass long on-site installation processes and avoid placing expensive IoT hardware.
- Pinpoint leak locations to target field maintenance crews directly to high-risk zones.
The Satellite Data Pipeline
The LaGrand platform fuses free multispectral data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites with local weather parameters and the operator's digital GIS network plans. While native thermal satellite imagery is captured at a coarse 10m/20m grid, LaGrand applies a proprietary deep-learning AI model called Super-Resolution (SEN2SR).
SEN2SR: Quadrupling Spatial Resolution
SEN2SR upscales raw 10-meter thermal imagery into a highly precise 2.5-meter grid. This allows the system to trace heat signatures along narrow pipeline corridors rather than broad municipal sectors, filtering out natural solar reflections on roads and rooftops.
This analytical workflow requires no local integration or software downloads. By feeding the pipeline map directly into the SaaS platform, grid operators in cities like Weinfelden (TBW) and Buchs (sgsw) get immediate access to network condition heatmaps.
"High-resolution satellite thermal infrared view of municipal pipelines showing heat emissions, with highlighted yellow defect hot spots and a 2.5-meter resolution grid overlay. Premium dark blueprint style."
Results & Validation
Our remote sensing technology has been validated across several European networks:
Halluin, France Pilot
LaGrand processed historical satellite logs over the Halluin district heating grid. The system successfully classified over 80% of the grid as healthy and correctly flagged localized leak locations that exactly matched the operator's historic repair work orders.
Schwyz, Switzerland Pilot
A rigorous physical validation campaign proved that LaGrand's processing model can identify sub-surface thermal anomalies from pipes buried up to 5 meters deep, demonstrating the robust physics behind our AI model.
Optimize your network integrity today
Find leaks proactively and save resources. Partner with LaGrand for a secure and cost-efficient district heating monitoring solution.