Ensure Regulatory Compliance with Drone-Based Solutions

The newest modifications to California’s General Order 95, a set of rules that apply to overhead electric supply and communication lines to reduce safety risks to workers and the public, will take effect on June 30, 2019.

To avoid the threat of regulatory action, prudent utilities will take steps to document their compliance with General Order 95.

The problem? Incumbent utility inspection methods—such as snapping photos from the ground or a manned aircraft—can be slow, dangerous, and imprecise. For example, in our work with utility companies, we discovered discrepancies in location data for 50% of distribution poles. And while ground teams typically find that 10% of poles are out of compliance, PrecisionHawk has found, on average, that the number is actually 25-30%.

In our brief, General Order 95: Get (and Stay) in Compliance Using Drone-Based Aerial Intelligence, we explore how our drone-based distribution solution addresses the challenges of incumbent inspection methods in complying with the order.