Reducing Wildfire Risk with AI-Powered Vegetation Intelligence

Challenge – Missed High-Risk Spans and Escalating Wildfire Exposure

A leading power utility managing over 500 miles of transmission lines relied on manual vegetation patrols that often missed high-risk spans.
This led to delayed mitigation, increased ignition risk, and growing exposure to claims and regulatory penalties.
Without scalable risk intelligence, maintenance teams struggled to prioritize the areas that mattered most for wildfire prevention.

Solution – AI-Based Encroachment Detection and Risk Scoring

Partnering with Nuodata, the utility deployed an advanced Vegetation & Wildfire Risk platform powered by Spectra (Nuodata) and the Vegetation Risk Toolkit.

The solution combined:

• Computer Vision (CV) and LiDAR data processing for vegetation encroachment detection
  
  
  

• Span-level risk scoring models to quantify ignition potential
  
  
  

• Patrol and work bundling optimization to improve crew scheduling and coverage
  
  
  

• Seamless integration with existing asset and work management systems
  
  
  

This enabled automated risk identification, smarter patrol prioritization, and data-driven vegetation management, reducing operational overhead and wildfire exposure.

Impact – Safer Operations and Proactive Risk Reduction

The transformation delivered measurable results in safety, efficiency, and regulatory compliance:

• 28% reduction in patrol hours through targeted coverage
  
  
  

• Prioritized high-risk spans for faster, more effective mitigation
  
  
  

• Lowered claims and penalties exposure through proactive vegetation management
  
  
  

• Improved field crew efficiency and operational readiness
  
  
  

By uniting LiDAR intelligence, computer vision, and AI-driven analytics, the utility built a resilient, proactive approach to wildfire prevention—enhancing safety, sustainability, and reliability.

Meta Description

Discover how a power utility used Nuodata’s Spectra platform and Vegetation Risk Toolkit to cut patrol hours by 28%, target high-risk spans, and reduce wildfire-related claims and penalties with AI-powered vegetation intelligence.