Georgia Power exploring expanded use of grid data to enhance vegetation management by integrating artificial intelligence

Effective vegetation management is crucial for the safety and reliability of the electric grid. Damage to power lines from falling tree limbs is a significant annual expense for Southern Company’s electric utilities. The utilities employ a variety of sophisticated, predictive methodologies to assess environmental factors that can help forecast when and where damage is likely to occur.

For example, LiDAR, a remote-sensing technology that uses laser beams to measure precise distances and movement in an environment has been used to help determine the proximity of a tree limb to the conductor before it ever makes contact with a power line.

Leveraging grid intelligence for better solutions

To supplement these predictive methodologies, Georgia Power is collaborating with clean tech company Sense on a pilot project to determine if better visibility into grid performance can be leveraged to more quickly identify when a disruption has occurred. Some 80 to 90% of outages affecting the distribution grid are caused by object-on-wire faults, which are difficult to detect. Presently, these scenarios are typically discovered by field teams visually inspecting line segments. The hope is that response times can be improved, thus enhancing safety and reliability for customers.

Georgia Power has begun installing Sense monitors in the homes of Atlanta-area customers who have opted to participate in the pilot. The Sense monitor is a retrofit device that installs directly into home electrical panels. These devices will provide Georgia Power with a high-resolution view of the local distribution system and a better understanding of grid anomalies like “tree slaps,” which occur when branches fall onto or otherwise strike power lines.

“Sense technology has been used in many markets to help homeowners better understand their energy usage and find ways to save on energy costs,” said Wesley Granade, AMI/MDM manager for Georgia Power. “But we see a bigger opportunity to leverage disaggregated data on an enterprise basis to gain a clearer picture of grid conditions, early detection of vegetation issues and improved regulatory compliance.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Georgia Power in this effort,” said Sense Vice President of Energy Services Colin Gibbs. “We believe Sense technology has tremendous potential to unlock learnings that can help Georgia Power refine its response to disruptive vegetation events, paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient distribution system that ultimately benefits customers.”

An added benefit: Informing the next generation of AMI

This pilot with Sense potentially also provides an opportunity for additional learnings that can further shape the future of energy. In addition to the potential for more timely identification of disruptive vegetation events, Sense devices serve as proxies to better understand the potential of technology to inform the next generation of meters to better serve customers in the future.