By Ed Bell
The utilities industry is overwhelmed by data, and the pace of data acquisition and the amount of data being acquired is only complicating the already severely challenged situational awareness environment.
Could Artificial Intelligence (#AI) and Computer Vision (CV) analytics be the cure?
From data acquisition, to inspection compliance, to supply chain operations, we explore how AI and CV could be integrated into utilities in the short, medium and long-term.
After 25+ years working as a technology executive and consultant to utilities, energy and services companies, I can say with confidence that utilities in the US need to innovate quickly. As caretakers of the largest and most crucial infrastructure in the US, they need help and investment that rivals those being made in other sectors of the economy. Data collection is overwhelming and yet underutilized. And standards of care throughout jurisdictions are all over the map. One of the largest utilities in the US has just filed for Chapter 11, putting customers, victims, plaintiffs and vendors at possible risk for their future.
As a risk averse industry, utilities have a long history of exercising care “commensurate with the danger for protection of those who rightfully may be subject to peril”. Inspection requirements for infrastructure that regularly exists in both densely populated as well as wildly remote or wooded areas requires a level of reasonable care that can be greatly aided by innovative analysis of data. Because the utilities, #drone manufacturers, and inspection companies all recognize that spatial data and images matched with geolocation, energy resources, elevation, population distribution, and natural risk zones (such as lightning strike data) are key components of managing risk, there’s been a concerted effort to cull that data.
“But data without metrics, measurements and agreement on meaning lacks actionability.“
Data capture systems such as drones provide tremendous information encoded in the photos they take. Information such as gimbal angles, heading and altitude provide enough information to calculate and create 3D models of equipment and infrastructure that rival more expensive technologies such as #Lidar. 4K video and high resolution still cameras provide excellent detail and resolution of the equipment itself. But this data, without the means to identify hot spots, anomalies, priorities and actions, can only be actionable through learning. By combining this #data with intelligent algorithms and pattern association, infrastructure industries can put innovation as well as action into their risk management processes.
A revolution in data innovation principles is needed…a revolution that leverages the large amounts of commercially sensitive digital assets and data that already exist for utilities’ operations. It’s time for a standards and platform innovation that can combine the asset information from drone images, inspection results, and the utilities infrastructure elements in a timely fashion. By delivering data and analytics to end-users who can make decisions and react to those data, a pattern can be developed to educate Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision Analytics to empower decision making at the point of need.
It’s for this reason, I have decided to devote my time and effort to solving these challenges as an advocate of open innovation, from the outside. By joining Pieris Consulting, I am focused on developing solutions and meeting these challenges for utilities, telecommunications and critical infrastructure. I look forward to enhancing the digital transformation of the utility industry with support, empathy and experience.
About Ed Bell
Ed Bell is an experienced Business and IT executive, focused on innovative technology solutions in energy, energy efficiency and utility industries. Mr. Bell has worked on risk management, technology, strategic review and organizational realignment projects for the oil & gas, merchant trading, utility and independent power producing sectors of the energy industry as well as having led development teams building hybrid and cloud-based systems in support of a wide variety of remote data collection projects. In addition to extensive systems experience, systems development and systems implementation experience, Ed was a founding member of the Global Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in energy trading systems at the C.T. Bauer College of Business. Ed is an active licensed private pilot and sUAS certificate holder with field experience in utility sUAS operations.
About Pieris Consulting
Pieris Consulting is the US-based consulting arm of the Pieris Global family of companies. We are a global innovation firm with a reputation for problem solving that is the cornerstone of our success. Pieris solves your organization’s most challenging problems through expertise in strategy, product management, marketing, digital transformation, operations, global partnering and new revenue pathways. We partner with innovative companies to drive that innovation throughout the world and bring about meaningful, positive outcomes.
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