The safety of powerline infrastructure significantly affects our everyday life and industrial activities. There are many factors and objects to threaten powerline safety, which include encroaching vegetation, tree healthiness, ambient temperature of the powerlines, structural faults of insulator and tower and so on. A timely and accurate monitoring of those key powerline features enables to prevent causing possible dangerous situation such as blackout. Pre 2010 most of utility firms heavily relied on men-centric powerline monitoring methods which were time consuming and very costly, and also hazardous work.
However, in the last decade airborne LiDAR system was introduced as a cost-effective data acquisition tool which enables to rapidly capture 3D powerline scene with up to about 30 points/m2. This dramatically increased point density would provide a great possibility for achieving the automation of 3D reconstruction of powerline scene features which is an essential step for a machine-based powerline safety monitoring.
The interaction of severe weather, overhead electric infrastructure and surrounding vegetation contributes to power outages. Given that 90% of storm outages in Connecticut are tree-related, recent wildfire in 2019 started because a tree fell on powerline in California, accurate modelling of power outages before a disaster arrives could result in improved pre-staging of crews and equipment resulting in improved electric reliability.
VMAPS has been in the forefront of mapping thousands of powerline circuits to mitigate such risk in both transmission and distribution corridors.