Satellite-based monitoring provides greater visibility of construction activities along the Rilland–Tilburg high-voltage connection, supporting efficient project supervision and targeted field inspections.
As the Netherlands accelerates the expansion of its electricity grid to address growing demand and network congestion, transmission system operator TenneT is developing a major new high-voltage connection between Rilland and Tilburg. To help oversee construction activities along this extensive infrastructure corridor, TenneT has selected Dutch satellite monitoring specialist Orbital Eye. Its COSMIC-EYE platform provides weekly insights into construction progress and contractor activities, enabling TenneT’s project teams to monitor developments remotely and deploy field resources more effectively.
A Major Infrastructure Project With Complex Construction Challenges
The Rilland–Tilburg connection is one of TenneT’s major grid expansion projects in the Netherlands. The new high-voltage connection, involving 263 electricity pylons, will strengthen the electricity infrastructure in the south of the country and help accommodate increasing electricity demand and the transition towards a more sustainable energy system.
Delivering an infrastructure project of this scale presents considerable operational challenges. Construction takes place across an extensive geographical area, involving multiple contractors, landowners, and construction sites. Maintaining a reliable overview of activities, verifying progress and ensuring that contractors carry out work according to agreed plans requires substantial coordination and inspection capacity.
With electricity networks expanding rapidly across Europe, these challenges are becoming increasingly significant. Grid operators must manage growing construction programs while making efficient use of limited technical and operational resources.
Monitoring Construction Activities from Space
To support the management of this complex project, TenneT is using Orbital Eye’s COSMIC-EYE satellite monitoring platform. The technology provides a regular, independent overview of construction activities along the corridor, without requiring personnel to visit every location. By combining satellite imagery with advanced data analysis, COSMIC-EYE detects and maps relevant changes and activities along the route. These include the movement and presence of construction machinery, the placement of temporary support materials, the development of access roads and platforms, excavation activities, and material storage.
TenneT receives weekly reports providing its project teams with an up-to-date overview of developments along the corridor. This information helps identify where construction is progressing, where activities require closer attention, and where additional field inspections may be necessary. The satellite-based information supports planners, geographic information system (GIS) specialists, project managers, and construction teams in coordinating activities and making informed decisions. Rather than replacing physical inspections, the technology complements existing supervision methods by helping TenneT focus its resources where they add the most value.
Scalable Monitoring for Europe’s Expanding Electricity Networks
The collaboration illustrates how satellite technology can help transmission system operators address one of the major challenges of Europe’s energy transition: expanding and maintaining increasingly complex electricity networks while keeping operational resources and costs under control.
Unlike conventional inspection methods, which require personnel or equipment to visit individual locations, satellite monitoring can cover extensive infrastructure corridors at regular intervals. Combined with targeted field inspections, this approach enables operators to increase monitoring coverage without a corresponding increase in inspection resources.
For Orbital Eye, the TenneT project builds on more than a decade of experience in monitoring critical energy infrastructure. Founded in Delft in 2012, the company has developed COSMIC-EYE into an operational satellite monitoring platform used by infrastructure operators internationally. Its established experience in the pipeline industry is now being applied to electricity networks, including projects with major transmission system operators in France and Germany.
Arnaud van den Berg, Chief Commercial Officer at Orbital Eye, comments: “Europe’s electricity networks are undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Projects such as Rilland–Tilburg demonstrate both the scale of that transformation and the challenges operators face in supervising construction across large geographical areas.
“With COSMIC-EYE, we provide a proven, scalable monitoring solution that gives project teams greater visibility of activities on the ground while helping them use their resources more efficiently. We are proud to support TenneT in delivering this important infrastructure project.”
The collaboration with TenneT marks another step in Orbital Eye’s expansion into the electricity transmission market, where satellite monitoring offers opportunities to support infrastructure operators throughout the lifecycle of their networks—from construction and maintenance to daily operations.
About Orbital Eye
Orbital Eye is a Dutch technology company specializing in satellite-based monitoring of critical infrastructure. Founded in Delft in 2012, the company developed COSMIC-EYE, a monitoring platform that combines satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and expert validation to provide infrastructure operators with actionable information about activities and changes around their assets.
With customers in the pipeline and electricity transmission industries, Orbital Eye helps operators improve infrastructure security, monitor extensive networks efficiently, and optimize operational resources.
More information: www.orbitaleye.com.
