Tri-County REC Unlocks the True Value of Data with IVMS

The Solution: Building a Foundation for Proactive Vegetation Management

In 2023, after detailed discussions with AiDASH, Tri-County REC adopted IVMS to gain critical system visibility and build a smarter, more efficient and proactive process.

IVMS gave Tri-County REC complete visibility of vegetation conditions throughout their service territory—even in hard-to-reach areas—without sending crews to physically inspect each section. This comprehensive system visibility became the foundation for an efficient, proactive vegetation management program that enables better data-driven decision making, budget planning, and streamlined bid packet creation.

Data-Driven Decision Making

With this newfound visibility that would have taken months to capture on foot, Tri-County REC quickly shifted from reactive maintenance to data-driven planning. The IVMS platform enabled them to:

• Improve efficiency by leveraging comprehensive vegetation data to strategically allocate resources and minimize inspections.
• Use vegetation clearance data to prioritize which circuits needed immediate attention.
• Move away from reactive “hot spotting” to planned circuit-based maintenance.
• Shift their focus from budget-constrained trimming to growth cycle management.

Enhanced Budget Planning

Perhaps one of the most significant impacts was on Tri-County REC’s budgeting process. Budget discussions evolved from simply asking “What’s left to spend?” to strategic conversations about “What cycle do we want to achieve?”

IVMS transformed their approach by:

• Creating forecasts based on actual vegetation condition data rather than historical estimates.
• Developing accurate cost projections before the bidding process.
• Enabling scenario planning at varying granularity (e.g., circuit-level or a portion of circuit). In other words, they were able to determine that they could do X amount of work at Y costs.
• Having visibility into the relationship between budget allocation and system impact with IVMS criticality scores.

Streamlined Bid Process

A major focus of Tri-County REC’s second year partnering with AiDASH and using IVMS was transforming how they developed and managed contractor bid packets. After Tri-County REC used IVMS to inform where and how much to bid based on their budget, they found their cost estimates were within 10% of actual contractor bids, demonstrating IVMS’s value for accurate budget and trimming planning.

With AiDASH, Tri-County REC was able to:

• Update specifications and contracts to support proactive management.
• Create digital bid packets, highlighting land type boundaries (e.g., game land, state-owned) and vegetation conditions.
• Integrate bid packets with the AiDASH FieldPro mobile app to guide contractors to exactly where the work was needed rather than use paper-based maps.

Measurable Impact: Transforming Operations with Data

By implementing IVMS, Tri-County REC has built a foundation for proactive vegetation management that promises continued improvements in reliability, efficiency, and customer service for years to come. Even in these early stages of implementation, Tri-County REC is already seeing tangible system-wide improvements:

• Improved operational efficiency through complete transparency throughout the system evaluation, budget, planning, and execution processes.
• Optimized resource allocation by basing crew and budget decisions on actual vegetation conditions and IVMS circuit criticality scores.
• Better budget accuracy with a data-driven approach to project costs with close alignment to actual costs of contractor bids.
• Enhanced contractor visibility through digital work progress tracking.
• Strategic vegetation management planning through the development of multi-year plans that evaluate the nuts and bolts of the entire system.