AiDash Taps UP42 Earth Observation Platform to Create Vegetation Management System for Electric Utilities

AiDash’s satellite-powered Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) has already reduced outages and slashed vegetation management costs for a Fortune 500 electric utility.

“Easy access to satellite data using UP42 formed the backbone of our IVMS solution,” said AiDash CEO Abhishek Vinod Singh. “The archive of historical high-resolution satellite imagery, which is hard to find elsewhere, is readily available from UP42.”

Keeping vegetation trimmed near power distribution lines is an expensive and time-consuming – yet critical – task for electric utilities. Encroachment by bushes and trees can cause wide-spread outages and spark devastating wildfires. Energy utilities worldwide spend billions of dollars each year to continuously monitor vegetation in their powerline corridors from the ground and the sky, often using manned and unmanned aircraft.

The AiDash IVMS solution enables utilities to identify risks and plan vegetation management activities years in advance. AiDash has developed AI algorithms that analyze archived and current optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images captured by satellites to predict vegetation growth rates. This analysis, delivered via a web dashboard and mobile app, allows the utility to focus its trimming operations in high-risk areas.