How Intelligent Drones Can Prevent Wildfires

As the United States wildfire season continues to lengthen, electric utilities could find new value from drones backed by advanced analytics to help prevent disasters. Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones can deliver literal birds-eye views of potential problems – encroaching vegetation, damaged equipment, nearby hazards – when there is still plenty of time to fix things. This year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, drones can also help keep people safe, going into the field to gather data while human experts stay safely inside and receive high-quality data for better business decisions. "Drones can quickly and efficiently gather information from power poles across vast expanses of the landscape," said Ron Gray, a senior solution engineer at SAP. "With analytical insights on where the biggest potential hazards are, electric companies can develop a prioritized schedule of inspections and maintenance plans, including outage management timeframes. This would also help utilities correct missing or inaccurate information on equipment with fact-based mapping data and prove compliance with regulatory reporting mandates."