Abstract

The vegetation challenges utility companies’ face is one of the most complicated challenges faced by any industry. For utilities, managing vegetation includes managing both Grow-in and Fall-in risks for the entire span of your assets:

• Grow-In describes vegetation growing into the path of a power line. To reduce the risk of grow-in events – utilities have historically used interval-based canopy inspections where utilities monitor the vegetation surrounding their power lines to spot the species of trees and their distance from the assets. Trimming and maintenance is based on these findings.
• Fall-In describes trees falling onto a utility’s power line. These events generally occur during storms or other natural events. While technically any tree can fall, tree that are sick or ones with poor soil conditions are much higher risk. Monitoring tree height and vitality are currently the best way to perform risk analysis when prioritizing maintenance, specifically going into seasons where storms are more likely to occur.