Intelligent vegetation management

From costly manual inspections to countless work plan meetings reviewing spreadsheets and handwritten notes, utilities have done their best with available technology — until now.

Vegetation management is costly

$24.2B

Amount utilities spent on vegetation management globally in 2022.

$39.2B 

Expected global utility vegetation management spend by 2029.

$100M+

Vegetation management is frequently the single largest line item in annual O&M budgets.

Ad hoc and manual processes are prevalent across the industry

Fixed cycles and manual inspections 
Too many meetings to develop work plans 
Spreadsheets and handwritten notes 
Very long overall process 

Introducing
Intelligent Vegetation Management

Now there’s a new way — a whole new software category that optimizes vegetation management, from analysis and planning, to execution.

The Intelligent Vegetation Management (IVM) category requires functionality in four key areas:

Remote Sensing

Whether gathered by satellite, LiDAR, aerial imagery, or weather technology, remote sensing data is needed to provide a view into where vegetation risks are located.

Multisource Data Fusion

Single data sources are often not enough. Basic IVM requires fusing of data from multiple sources and preparing it for analysis.

Analysis

IVM requires a model to analyze all the available data and produce a set of recommendations.

Workflows

Once the analysis is complete, predictions and recommendations need to be delivered to the field crews on the ground, and the results need to be fed back into the next predictions.

AiDash is the leader in Intelligent Vegetation Management

AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) goes above these basic category requirements, delivering highly differentiated capabilities in each of the four key category areas:

SatelliteVision™

This patent-pending technology transforms how satellite imagery is acquired and processed at a global scale. It enables us to scan and process large T&D networks of over 100,000 miles in a matter of weeks, and deliver insights at the scale required by the world’s largest utilities.

Multisource Data Fusion

Although satellites lead, IVMS can ingest and fuse data from multiple sources, including LiDAR, aerial imagery, weather monitoring, land assessments, and general utility information, such as outage records and customer counts. 

VegetationAI™   

These patent-pending models have been trained on extensive and diverse data sets, resulting in very high accuracy in predicting vegetation risks, such as grow-in risk, fall-in risk, and tree vitality, etc.

Automated Workflows via a Web and Field Mobile App

Automated workflows allow utilities to analyze, plan, and execute VM activities from a single software platform, communicating directly with field staff and contractors via the new AiDash IVMS Field App.

Play chess, not checkers, with the help of AiDash IVMS

Now, you can:

  • Collect data more quickly, safely, and accurately.
  • Replace long meetings of the minds with modern
    analytical tools.
  • Use automation to build work plans optimized to your specific budget — years in advance.

In much less time!

Intelligent Vegetation Management is a win for utilities, the public, and the planet   

Utilities

10% avg. system reliability increase

20% avg. reduction in vegetation spend

ROI in 1 year, all expenses managed

Public

10%-20% decline in vegetation-caused outages

10% improvement in grid reliability

800K+ miles of T&D lines monitored 

Planet

Mitigating wildfire risk

Reducing carbon footprints

Maintaining ecosystem resilience

Don’t just take our word for it

AiDash IVMS already has over 150 customers of all sizes in 48 of 50 U.S. states and in countries on 5 of 7 continents.

Having situational awareness into over 70,000 miles of T&D is something I never thought possible just a few years ago! AiDash allows us to be more surgical and improve the way we manage our contracted work by building better books of work.

    Fletcher Johnson
    Fletcher Johnson

    Director Vegetation Management & Wood Pole Integrity

    I’m able to use our budget and strategically remove vegetation where we have the greatest risk of a wildfire and track cycle trims. With satellites and AI, we can remove a hazard tree before it causes a power outage. All it takes is one dry, windy day and one tree to create a natural disaster.

      Holly Woodings
      Holly Woodings

      Mountain Area Manager

      In year one we eclipsed all (SAIFI) targets for all operating companies after we implemented IVMS. In year two we performed better than the previous year and still eclipsed all targets across the board. That was for us, very positive results.

        Heath Williams
        Heath Williams

        Senior Analyst, Vegetation Management

        A time-based cycle approach prune plan is best practice today, but a data-driven, optimized approach will soon be the industry’s best management practice.

          Bertram Stewart
          Bertram Stewart

          Vegetation Strategy Manager

          The AiDash team was especially supportive and reliable, and that attentiveness paid off. The solution delivered accuracy — much higher than we’ve experienced previously.

            Sophia Schröer
            Sophia Schröer

            Engineer for Smart Grids

            Everyone is facing similar cost challenges. With AiDash, we can now make more data-driven decisions, helping us focus our resources and prioritize the problem areas, first and foremost. Using this condition-based approach, we are better managing our expenses and improving reliability for customers.

              John Buckley
              John Buckley

              Director, Work Management and Energy Delivery

              Tulane University Law School’s Utility Vegetation Management Initiative (UVMI) conducted an independent, unbiased pilot field study on the use of AiDash satellite technology to determine its effectiveness in improving data accuracy and decision-making for UVM.

              In summary, the accuracy of AiDash IVMS is:

              97%

              with regard to side growth.

              95%

              with respect to vegetation density.

              95%

              in identifying spans that were 10 feet or more.

              95%

              when recommending the form of intervention.

              Intelligent Vegetation Management Perspectives,
              With Gary Huntley

              ex-Entergy Vice President, Distribution Services

              Play Video

              AiDash is the leader in Intelligent Vegetation Management

              Ready to see it in action for yourself? 

              Get a demo today.