Vegetation Management’s Future: Cost-Efficient, Safer, Better

The ability to ensure the reliability and sustainability of the grid is crucial to all around the globe. For utilities, effective vegetation management is critical as the maintenance required is not only challenging; it takes copious amounts of time and the cost is staggering. 

When vegetation isn’t managed properly, trees grow or fall onto power lines. Not only does the obvious outage occur, but utilities can also face astronomical fines. On top of that, a utility’s reputation can be soiled for years.

The Northeast Blackout on August 12, 2003 is one example of costly vegetation mismanagement that affected over 55 million people. If vegetation had been managed at the right time, the blackout and the subsequent fines and civil lawsuits totaling billions of dollars may not have been as significant.

Traditional vegetation management systems rely on manual inspections of assets to assess which trees need attention, usually on a quarterly basis. Because the grid is expansive it is nearly impossible to have a view into all areas that need trimming with this traditional approach.

Today, vegetation management requires countless hours to survey and gather data before countless more hours are spent clearing all the hot spots. There is a better, more efficient and effective way to scale vegetation management. 

In June 2021, GE Digital Grid, in partnership with a global energy industry consulting firm concluded a survey of 36 North American major utility companies’ senior managers and executives.

Plus, current systems lack many insights needed for proper management of the grid’s vegetation such as weather’s effect on growth, specific growth patterns of tree species and additional factors which could play a role in outages, such as buildings and other structures. And if there were systems that could be predictive—while being more efficient—utilities would line up at the door.

GE Digital Grid’s Visual Intelligence solution provides a human-guided artificial intelligence-powered predictive model that enables utilities to more effectively and efficiently  handle vegetation management and save on manpower while spending less overall.

GE Digital Grid’s system utilizes drones, satellites, LiDAR, big data analytics for smart grid, and AI-driven technology which moves away from a time-based trimming approach to a risk-based trimming approach, allowing utilities to more efficiently focus on the problem areas. The system analyzes the data and images and gives the trained system manager the holistic view desired, as well as providing predictions on where to focus next.

When looking at how this risk-based approach affects the bottom line, the results are eye-opening:

• 51% cost reduction per acre of mechanical trimming
• 30% cost reduction on volume trimming
• 30% reduction of actual trimming work

Furthermore, GE Digital Grid’s data-driven Visual Intelligence solution can reduce outages by 30%, vegetation management costs by up to 20%, and provide a 74.1% return on investment.

For many utilities, a misstep in vegetation management can cost billions of dollars in fines and lawsuits. The end-of-the-day effect on reputation and erosion of faith is incalculable.

If you’d like to learn more about GE Digital Grid’s Visual Intelligence solution and the future of vegetation management, read the white paper now:  Data-Driven Visual Intelligence Drives Down Vegetation Management Cost.