Case Study

Fortune 500 utility transforms vegetation management for their entire T&D line with AiDash

AiDash

Improves Bid Accuracy with Transparency
Avoids Unneeded Trimming with Accuracy
Lowers Costs with Better Planning

Accurate insights transform planning, budgeting and spending

Company: Fortune 500 utility
Location: Western and Midwestern USA
Solution: AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS)

CHALLENGE

You can’t manage what you can’t see

With more than 60,000 line miles, this Fortune 500 utility company manages one of the largest systems in the United States with a vegetation management budget well over $200 million.

Yet the vegetation management team did not have adequate visibility and transparency with their contractors. As a result, they frequently reached less than 50% of their annual trimming goal. Costs rose and network reliability dropped due to a number of contributing factors:

  • Without enough detail to bid accurately, contractors’ bids were artificially high.
  • Trimming crews often had the wrong tools for their site’s terrain, resulting in costs and delays.
  • Critical areas were sometimes missed while noncritical areas received too much attention.

SOLUTION

Accurate visibility gives you control

The company deployed satellite technology through AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) on their entire transmission and distribution line of over 60,000 miles. With sophisticated artificial intelligence and work management software, they gained control of their budgets and managed their contractors more closely. IVMS gave them several new advantages:

  • Accurate estimation of needed work (crew hours and cost), to identify various work types and floor work, and analyzing vegetation density.
  • Detailed 5-year circuit-level trim planning based on criticality and trim cycles.
  • Detailed bid packets and job packets for contractors, including comparisons of estimated costs and actual bids.

RESULTS

Better oversight = Fewer outages

By adopting IVMS from AiDash, this F500 utility company transformed their ability to plan what to trim, where to trim, and how to trim it. With improved communication to their contractors, they reached the most critical segments sooner and enhanced oversight of their vegetation management budget. As a result, they reduced outages caused by vegetation and increased the reliability of their system to more than 3 million end clients.

  • Identified over 30,000 line miles that didn’t require immediate trimming and spread trimming costs over 5.6 years instead of 4.6 years – all due to enhanced accuracy from satellites.
  • Prioritized work so that the most critical areas were trimmed more frequently.
  • Delivered contractor bids that were markedly more accurate, through better identification of site restrictions.

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About AiDash  

AiDash is an AI-first vertical SaaS company on a mission to transform operations, maintenance, and sustainability in industries with geographically distributed assets by using satellites and AI at scale. With access to a continual, near real-time stream of critical data, utilities, energy, mining, and other core industries can make more informed decisions and build optimized long-term plans, all while reducing costs, improving reliability, and achieving sustainability goals. To learn more about how AiDash is helping core industries become more resilient, efficient, and sustainable, visit www.aidash.com.