Avangrid, a sustainable energy company and a member of the Iberdrola Group, has launched an initiative to improve reliability and grid resiliency for its electric customers, using data analytics to prioritize proactive tree maintenance.
The method, which analyzes potential impact, historical reliability and risk, is under research at Avangrid’s New York subsidiaries, New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E), and has delivered significant benefits to customers.
NYSEG and RG&E addressed danger trees based on imminent risk identified by customer calls, worst performing circuit reports or the local arborist’s maintenance plans. However, the new data-driven approach uses data analysis to ensure reliability is at the forefront of decisions.
The system analyzes historical performance of the line, the number of customers served by the line, the number of high-risk trees and the type of protectant on the line (bare or covered) to determine priority levels for removing the danger tree. NYSEG and RG&E arborists create a detailed work plan based on the priorities.
The data analysis framework is possible due to Avangrid’s data consolidation efforts by its Operational Performance team. This effort added many data points from Avangrid’s eight electric and natural gas utilities into one cohesive system for advanced data analytics in a variety of areas.
Avangrid plans to boost its data analytics with tree work by adding more data points, such as the details on tree species, level of tree decay or from the company’s maintenance inspections and by integrating the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) system to help identify risks and field conditions to improve safety for its arborists.
