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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.
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.
Utilities can leverage tech to make smart decisions and help prepare their systems to be more resilient. Utilizing technology eliminates wasted time. Machines and algorithms tell us the when, what and the where. When you’re in the right place at the right time, you’re avoiding future outages and providing better customer service.
Iliana Rentz - Head of Vegetation Management, Florida Power & Light
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.”
Traditional vegetation management really only works in a static environment. A multi-model approach utilizing the new tech will always be more effective than deploying manpower.
Hadley Doyle-Gonzalez - President and Founder, SMG Delivering Data
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.
Change is not linear. It's exponential. So, if you don’t get ahead of it, you’ll always be playing catch-up.
Iliana Rentz - Head of Vegetation Management, Florida Power & Light
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!
Vegetation management (VM) is a critical and expensive maintenance responsibility to protect transmission and distribution infrastructure. This white paper outlines the results of a recent survey of 36 major North American electric and gas utilities concerning their satisfaction with their current vegetation management programs and recommendations for improvements.
Learn how this platform transforms how vegetation management is done and significantly reduces the cost of this vital component of a utility’s maintenance program. Lastly, learn how to create a business case for a data driven approach to VM that can achieve the following:
Achieve network-level optimization with the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning
Mitigating threats and strengthening the Grid with AI-based vegetation & inspection programs
Safe, secure management and orchestration of the distribution grid