JOEMC Brings AI to Vegetation Management
New Technology
AiDash-Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS)
Opportunity
Jones-Onslow EMC is constantly looking for new ways to serve its members better, and an area of focus recently has been our Vegetation Management program. Crews manage unwanted vegetation using a variety of methods which are periodically evaluated for safety and environmental impact. In years past, crews utilized historical data to create maintenance schedules. Due to the size of our territory, we have found hazardous trees, invasive species, erosion, and other unidentified factors causing issues that were not found through our traditional methods.
Goal
The Intelligent Vegetation Management System allows JOEMC to monitor risk in our service area. This technology serves our members by preventing outages that can occur due to unidentified regions needing clearing. Through the program, crews can schedule line clearance trimming better, mitigate hazards, and help the co-op better plan for budget expenses based on the predictions through the AI system.
Solution
Intelligent Vegetation Management System utilizes satellites and AI technology to monitor the growth of thousands of trees, and the effects of drought or runoff from storm-swollen rivers that impact the health of the trees near and around our lines. It also assesses tree health through chlorophyll levels, soil erosion, slowed group, and tree mortality. With this knowledge, JOEMC has a real-time measurement of vegetation needs and hazards of our entire system enabling the Vegetation Management Supervisor to map out where crews need to be, based on a criticality score provided by IVMS. All of this results in fewer members affected by an outage.
Watch this video to learn more.