Power outages are a cause of major inconvenience in every country all around the world, especially if they are on a massive scale. The United States is no exception. According to one analysis, the United States has more power outages than any other developed country.  Frequent power outages are becoming an unfortunate norm for businesses especially the power utilities in the United States. A 2018 survey found that one in four companies experience a power outage at least once a month.

Wildfires have caused catastrophic damages to the utility industry over the past decade. With an average of 68,000 wildfires reported in the US every year and climate change impacts getting worse, the utility industry is under tremendous pressure to plan and prepare for what’s coming.

Storms, cyclones and hurricanes have been associated with destruction, causing immense damage to life and property and leaving behind trails of wreckage. But over the last decades, storms have been particularly catastrophic to utilities, causing widespread power outages and damaging utility infrastructure, resulting in losses worth billions of dollars and several months of restoration work. What’s more? Climate change is likely to make tropical cyclones more intense, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned. 

In the recent past, discussions around the use of satellite imagery as an emerging technology for remote monitoring of infrastructure and vegetation have picked up pace. From tracking vegetation coverage and change detection to disaster monitoring, satellite imagery has indeed proved to be a revolutionary technological advancement with several use cases up its sleeve. While it may seem easy, the science behind capturing and analyzing satellite imagery is complicated, yet very intriguing.

Encroachment crisis is a major issue faced by the energy industry today. Despite several regulations and comprehensive plans regarding new construction and development near pipelines, there are enough and more Right of Way encroachments in the US today. In the recent years, major pipeline encroachment incidents resulting in gas leaks, loss of life, serious injury and/or major property damage have caused the industry and regulatory agencies to ramp-up efforts to identify encroachment issues and develop measures to prevent them.

Sweltering heat waves, massive cyclones, hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other such natural disasters have become more intense in the recent past. Despite the continuing debate, several scientific studies claim that climate change is one of the major reasons behind this phenomenon.

The year 2020 is an exceptional year in contemporary times. Industries around the world, that would have otherwise disapproved of remote working, have embraced it in its entirety courtesy to a global pandemic.

Weather-related blackouts due to fallen trees have become a norm in the United States. Customers across the country have faced this ordeal on a regular basis and so have power restoration workers. Weather-related power outages due to vegetation risks and hazards have been a constant challenge for power utilities. Power utilities have worked relentlessly to ensure vegetation-related outages can be avoided, but it’s never been an easy task to achieve. 

Technology-led business model innovation has been the secret sauce to success for most modern-age digital startups. Core industries, on the other hand, are taking the slow and steady approach, adopting technology in a piecemeal manner, while keeping their core business model or processes unchanged.

A new report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revealed that the global energy market is experiencing its biggest shock in 70 years. There has been a steady decline in the demand for energy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the analysis of 100 days of data, the IEA projects that global energy use in 2020 will fall by 6% - seven times the decline after the 2008 global financial crisis.