The CSUN Aeronautics Design Team is changing the game by creating artificial intelligence to help find fires in their earliest stages.

The massive, beautiful tree canopies in the Western U.S., which may grow perilously close to power lines, can quickly spark destructive wildfires. In fact, 70% of electrical outages are caused by vegetation, and this number has increased by 19% year over year from 2009-2020. The second-largest wildfire in California's history, The Dixie Fire, sparked when power lines came into contact with a fir tree. Could AI-driven solutions help prevent wildfires before they start by analyzing the tree growth that can spark them? Hitachi Energy, the Zurich, Switzerland-based global technology company, says yes. Hitachi Energy, formerly known as Hitachi ABB Power Grids (the name was changed last October) is currently focused on "powering good for a sustainable energy future."

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."