HOUSTON – A new AI (artificial intelligence) technology is helping CenterPoint Energy manage which trees need to be trimmed and when.
The utility, which manages the transmission and distribution of electricity in the Houston metro area, has been steadfast on reducing the potential power outages caused by overgrown vegetation.
It was part of CenterPoint’s initial plan following the Hurricane Beryl infrastructure failure and was outlined again in the company’s second phase of resiliency.
To help, CenterPoint is tapping on AI.
“It’s something that we’ve been working on for a number of years,” said Eric Easton, the Vice President of Grid Transformation at CenterPoint Energy. “CenterPoint has roughly 27,000 miles of overhead conductor. And, just to give a little perspective, if we were to get into a truck and try to drive that infrastructure, we’re talking about over a year and a half of driving.”
To speed up the timeline and save money, CenterPoint is unveiling an AI tool that looks at their infrastructure from above.
The utility is partnering with a tech company named Neara. Using an airplane equipped with a LIDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) sensor, they can scan all of the electric lines, including the trees that are encroaching or already engulfing power lines.
“That process is typically taken two months to capture the aerial imagery data,” Easton said. “It’s the data that we then use to build the 3D model. And then once we have that model, then it’s a three hour process to get the results.”
In just a few months, they have a database of information that automatically pulls out the most vulnerable and critical areas of vegetation.
It’s a layered map with color codes reflecting priority level. On top of that, they can also determine if a tree could damage lines if it were to fall a certain direction. All of this from a quick aerial scan.
This helps work crews tend to the biggest hazards with the largest impact first.
“It’s proactive, so you can use that system to define something that hasn’t happened yet,” said Rob Brook, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Neara North America.
For example, if a hurricane, like Beryl, was to head towards Houston, CenterPoint could input the storms data and get a forecast of the damage their system could incur.
This is a potential game-changer.
“The short answer is, yes, This technology is definitely going to help us to restore faster for those major events, and then we’ll work to adapt it to things like thunderstorms,” Easton said.
The tech is already being rolled out, but is still in a probationary phase.
CenterPoint says they plan on feeding new scans to the AI once a year to ensure they’re on track and targeting the right areas.
A spokesperson didn’t have a current cost on the project.