FirstEnergy has deployed an AI-driven program to help predict and reduce tree-related outages before they occur across the company's six-state service area.
The company's vegetation management team engineered the program to calculate where trees pose the most risk to the electric system, especially before winter and summer storm seasons.The prediction model, named as the Advanced Vegetation Analytics Tool (AVAT), extracts data, including soil, weather, roadway, historical outage data, geographical typography and high-resolution aerial patrol photos, from several internal and external databases. The data identifies patterns and calculate the likelihood of a tree coming down on a power line or equipment and addresses problematic trees quickly.
"Not only is this tool helping us to keep the electricity flowing safely and reliably to our customers, but it is also helping us manage crews and our budget more efficiently,” said Tyler Woody, General Manager of Distribution Vegetation Management Operations at FirstEnergy. “By using this data tool to study the type of vegetation conditions in each area and the proximity to our power lines, we can better recommend the right type of equipment crews and contractors will need to bring with them to trim the first time they go out."
The AVAT tool adds to FirstEnergy's annual vegetation management methods, which involve professional tree crews assessing vegetation across the service area to determine the best approach to prevent trees from interfering with electrical facilities. The company also conducts proactive aerial inspections of transmission and distribution lines using helicopters having infrared and ultraviolet technology.
These approaches help ensure that high-voltage power lines and equipment are clear of trees and vegetation, which cannot be observed from the ground inspections
The company is predicted to use aerial saws, mechanical equipment or a combination of methods to control the vegetation based on inspection findings. Crews trim trees along FirstEnergy's rights-of-way on a four-year cycle.
