White paper
Revolutionizing Storm Response for Utility Organizations
When storms strike, they leave utility companies grappling with widespread power outages, damaged infrastructure, and the pressing need for rapid response. Over the past decade, the U.S. has experienced a 60% increase in weather-related power outages, primarily due to storms. Utility organizations are looking to the newest technology innovations to combat the rise in natural disasters. Many organizations are turning to autonomous drone technology, to enable swift, efficient, and safer storm response operations.
Meeting the challenges of increasing storm frequency
Storm intensity and frequency have risen dramatically, creating unprecedented challenges for utility organizations. With traditional inspection and response methods often time-consuming and hazardous, utilities face delays in damage assessments and restoration efforts.
Conducting inspections with drones meets these challenges head-on by delivering real-time data, reducing response times, and enhancing worker safety. Drones equipped with advanced AI and autonomous flight capabilities can safely navigate complex environments like substations, densely vegetated areas, and flood-affected sites.
How utility companies respond to storms:
Southern Company
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Southern Company has once again demonstrated its commitment to innovation and rapid response. Leveraging cutting-edge drone technology, our teams were able to conduct comprehensive damage assessments with unprecedented speed and efficiency. These "eyes in the sky" played a pivotal role in our efforts to restore power to affected communities as swiftly as possible.
When Hurricane Helene made landfall, it left a trail of devastation across vast areas, making traditional ground-based damage assessments both time-consuming and challenging. Recognizing the need for a faster, more effective solution, Southern Company deployed a fleet of drones to survey the impacted regions. These drones were able to cover extensive distances quickly, capturing high-resolution images and real-time video footage of the damage.
The aerial vantage point provided by the drones enabled our teams to pinpoint areas with the most significant damage, prioritize repair efforts, and allocate resources more efficiently. This technology not only expedited the assessment process but also ensured the safety of our ground crews by reducing the need for them to navigate hazardous conditions.
The data collected by the drones was transmitted to our command center, where it was analyzed by our experts. This information was then relayed to the ground crews, guiding them to the most critical areas in need of repair. As a result, we were able to restore power to our customers more quickly than ever before.
At Southern Company, we are committed to embracing innovative solutions to enhance our service and response capabilities. The use of drones in our damage assessment process for Hurricane Helene is a testament to our dedication to leveraging technology for the benefit of our customers and communities.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our skilled drone operators, ground crews, and all team members who worked tirelessly to restore power and provide support during this challenging time. Together, we continue to build a resilient and forward-thinking energy infrastructure.
Jonathan Tinch, MBA
UAS Pilot & Safety Coordinator at Southern Company
AEP
After Hurricane #Helene made landfall, I saw an opportunity to flex the Skydio X10's night flying capabilities in full force, assessing damage to power lines throughout Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia at NIGHT. The new #NightSense technology surpassed all expectations!
Thanks Lamar Milstead & Skydio!
Ryan Coon
Sr. Customer Reliability Technician at AEP Ohio
Duke Energy
On blue sky days, drones fly regularly to collect performance data from our equipment and conduct routine inspections. Following a storm, drones play a more urgent role.
“I just inspected about 10 poles in the matter of two minutes,” said Joshua Ward, a Duke Energy unmanned aircraft system pilot. “[Linemen] have to stop at each pole and climb up on a lift, just to look at the top of the pole.”
Time saved during the assessment phase can cut restoration times for customers experiencing extended outages.
As part of our Florida restoration efforts following Hurricane #Milton, Ward has been on the ground – with drone in air – gathering critical information to help crews perform their jobs faster and safer.
In recent weeks, drones were deployed into the mountainous terrain of western North Carolina – made nearly inaccessible by #Helene’s destruction – to inspect damaged equipment, helping crews manage difficult conditions.
Joshua Ward
UAS Pilot, Duke Energy
Transforming storm response workflows
During storm events, the need for accurate damage assessment and efficient resource allocation becomes critical. Drones that can fly in harsh weather conditions, zoom in with telephoto lenses to capture critical defect details, navigate autonomously in the dark, and in GPS denied environments enable utilities to:
Identify faults quickly: From spotting downed poles to detecting hard-to-reach damaged lines, drones eliminate guesswork and the cumbersome nature of manual inspections
Enable live assessments: With live-streaming capabilities, utility operators can make immediate decisions from a centralized command center, reducing the need for field personnel
Improve safety: Autonomous drones are able to reach risky vantage points and keep technicians away from hazardous environments.
Keeping safe during post-storm damage inspections
In a recent talk on using drones during storm-response, Victor Migliore, Operations Lead at the Chicago-based ComEd, discussed how his utility leverages drones throughout their storm response efforts.
“We also use drone for post-storm patrols. Our pilots are part of the reliability, inspections team. They will go out there and do their post-storm patrols, making sure that there are no high-priority faults that need to be attended to,” said Migliore.
A tool for transparency and effective communication
But ComEd is not just using drones to document and address storm damage. Migliore noted that drones like the Skydio X10 are used during storms for live-streamed staging and mapping, enabling the utility’s command center to view real-time conditions, guide resource allocation, and address high-priority faults all while the inspectors are out in the field. This approach enhances safety and operational efficiency by providing immediate situational awareness.
Migliore also explained how images and videos of damage taken with drones has helped them communicate outages to their customers and strengthen the utility’s community relationship.
“How can we effectively communicate with our customers that we’re working on it…A part of that is through social media and drone imagery, it goes a long way in doing that because then people can see that it isn’t just a branch that fell on a line or one pole that is down– it’s several poles. We think showing drone imagery is more effective for communicating with our customers.”
Beyond storm response: Building resilience
Many leading utility organizations are also using drones for post-storm inspections and proactive maintenance. By integrating drones into their reliability programs, utilities can monitor critical infrastructure consistently, detecting wear-and-tear issues before they escalate into failures.
Southern California Edison (SCE) is finding the value of routine, preventive inspections
"Skydio drones gave us the ability to capture high-resolution data of pivot bolts and identify issues before they become outages. It’s helped us make faster, smarter decisions to avoid costly repairs and downtime,” said Mark Christensen, Substation Apparatus and Maintenance Manager at SCE.
Conclusion
As storms grow in frequency and magnitude, the utility sector must innovate to maintain grid reliability. Drones empower utility organizations to adapt to this new reality. By transforming storm response operations, drones not only mitigate immediate threats but also pave the way for a more resilient and efficient utility grid.
For utilities seeking to enhance their storm response and condition-based maintenance capabilities, drones offer a scalable, reliable, and transformative solution.