Innovative Approach
From left: Eversource Senior Vice President of Engineering Digaunto Chatterjee, Eversource Manager of Substation and Transmission Data Innovation Junhui Zhao, Assoc. of Edison Illuminating Companies Vice President of Technical Strategy Elizabeth Cook, and Assoc. of Edison Illuminating Companies CEO Steve Hauser.
In recognition of its ongoing commitment to sustainability in providing safe, reliable electric service to customers, Eversource has been honored with a 2025 Achievement Award from the Assoc. of Edison Illuminating Companies (AEIC), the electric utility industry’s longest-serving and preeminent association of leading operations experts.
The AEIC Achievement Awards are presented annually to member utilities and individuals who demonstrate significant contributions to advancing operational excellence in the electric industry. This year, Eversource received one of the prestigious awards for developing a cutting-edge leak detection method for high-pressure-fluid-filled (HPFF) cables — a type of high-voltage, underground electric transmission line that runs through densely populated areas like Boston — which is already helping to enhance the operational efficiency of the grid and mitigate environmental risk.
“This remarkable technology has reduced the time required to detect leaks within these underground transmission networks from several days to a few hours, and we are already seeing in practice how valuable this application is for our system operators, as it allows us to respond to any issues and address them even more quickly and efficiently,” said Digaunto Chatterjee, Eversource’s senior vice president of Engineering.
“Not only does this transformative monitoring tool provide substantial operational benefits, it can also be implemented cost-effectively, creating vast potential for this method to become a scalable solution as utilities across the country face challenges of addressing aging infrastructure and maintaining environmental responsibility.”
“Not only does this transformative monitoring tool provide substantial operational benefits, it can also be implemented cost-effectively, creating vast potential for this method to become a scalable solution as utilities across the country face challenges of addressing aging infrastructure and maintaining environmental responsibility,” he added. “I’m incredibly proud of our team for being recognized by AEIC for their achievements on this innovative project, which we hope will serve as a model for similar advancements throughout the industry.”
Operated in Boston and other cities throughout Eversource’s three-state service territory, HPFF systems are designed to provide safe, reliable and efficient delivery of electricity in densely populated urban areas. Because of the extensive lengths and critical nature of these underground, high-voltage power lines, HPFF systems require smart, highly sensitive methods of leak detection monitoring.
Eversource’s team of engineers was honored with the 2025 AEIC Achievement Award for the solution they developed to address these challenges in the Boston area — a dynamic monitoring dashboard powered by artificial intelligence, which offers comprehensive insights into the operational status of HPFF networks that allow for a dramatic reduction in leakage detection time, in turn lowering environmental risk.
Since its implementation in late 2023, the early detection system has been rigorously tested and has already proven to be effective in detecting early-stage leaks within the HPFF network in Boston, highlighting the benefits of integrating sophisticated analytics with operational expertise. Because this innovative tool is entirely data-driven and does not require new sensors, it is also cost-efficient and provides greater potential for the system to be more widely adopted.
