Why Utilities Are Making Huge Changes to Vegetation Management

On November 18th, 2021, GE Digital hosted a webinar entitled, “Reinventing Vegetation Management,” moderated by Brian Hoff, VP of Product Management Analytics at GE Digital Grid. His guests were Hadley Doyle-Gonzalez, President and Founder of SMG Delivering Data; Iliana Rentz, Head of Vegetation Management at Florida Power & Light; Jenna Mukuno, Director of Product Marketing at Planet and Steve Jolly, Quality Project Manager at Florida Power & Light. The following will explore some key takeaways from the webinar.

Vegetation management has reached a crossroads. Traditional methods are a drain on manpower, time and impacts far too much of the budget. Utilities are seeing a new, better way to inspect and maintain their assets.

What Drivers Are Leading the Way?

The first driver is timing. Advancements in technology have exploded. Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have exponentially improved what's possible. Now is the time to leverage this technology and start reaping the benefits.  

Secondly, weather severity is increasing. Unchecked vegetation will be exacerbated by winter storms pushing trees dangerously close to power lines. Hurricanes are damaging infrastructure more than ever before, and wildfires continue to threaten our forests year after year.

Lastly, there’s cost. On one hand, we have traditional vegetation management, which is increasingly inefficient and expensive. Countless hours are lost going out and inspecting whole sections of the grid. Then there’s new and improved technology that drastically reduces costs associated with this inspection process. The cost reduction is made possible by moving from a time-based strategy to an intelligent, risk-based approach powered by AI and ML. This new approach, without a doubt, is a much more effective and efficient model for managing vegetation.

Steve Jolly, Quality Project Manager, also at Florida Power & Light, believes it is more cost efficient and effective to take humans out of analyzing data altogether. The technology “is there to step in, enhance the process and take unneeded boots off the ground.”

What Are These New Technologies?

• Satellites provide 24hr coverage and offer two distinct image profiles: a macro view of everything around assets and a precise micro view that adds specificity.
• Drones and fixed-wing airplanes fly in very close proximity to assets offering the highest resolution at sub ½ inch specs.
• LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) generates precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of surface characteristics around assets. Advances in mobile versions will change how ground crews operate.
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning takes all the data, organizes it, identifies species of vegetation, and offers actionable insights.

Why do Utilities Need to Make This Shift Now?

Because time is not on the utility’s side, it’s important to act now to avoid vegetation management headaches later. Fortunately, there’s a better way.

For Jenna Mukono, Director of Product Marketing at Planet (the largest network of commercial satellites in the United States) the first step is to “keep an open mind.” While the tech might seem intimidating at first, she often finds their clients realize these new technologies will have a positive impact on many teams within the utility.

Furthermore, because costs are coming down, utilities don’t have to choose which tech to prioritize—they can deploy them all at once. Then, they can layer AI and ML to analyze the data and extract the insights. At the end of the day, the operational improvement gained from these insights is really all that matters.

Utilities have an obligation to stay on top of trends and invest in modernization. By leveraging new tech, they can deploy crews to trim in the right place at the right time, avoiding future outages while improving inefficiencies, reducing costs, and delivering better customer care. The advancements in technology and a multi-model approach are the future of vegetation management.

Want to learn more? Watch the vegetation management for utilities webinar now!