Trimble announced a new solution that helps utilities better manage the risk posed by vegetation-related outages—Trimble Vegetation Manager.
The modular software provides an end-to-end solution for driving down utility vegetation management operating expenses and improving safety, regulatory compliance, performance and reliability of electric transmission and distribution infrastructure.
According to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the single largest cause of electric power outages occurs when trees grow or fall into overhead power lines. In addition, tree and power line conflicts have also caused significant wildland fires in both the U.S. and Canada. As electric utility companies in North America actively work to mitigate these threats, their Utility Vegetation Management (UVM) programs represent one of their largest recurring maintenance expenses. Utilities and regulators agree that keeping trees and vegetation from conflicting with overhead conductors is a critical responsibility of all utility companies concerned about electric service reliability and fire mitigation.
Encompassing the entire vegetation management work lifecycle, Trimble Vegetation Manager provides a comprehensive toolkit for electric transmission and distribution utilities, consisting of three modules that can be purchased separately or as a combined solution:
• LiDAR Analyzer – Integrates Trimble and third-party provided LiDAR-based geospatial data modeling and analysis to automatically capture vegetation threats
• Program Optimizer – Fine tunes vegetation cutting priorities and actions that target cost reduction, risk mitigation or both
• Operational Manager – Delivers operational capabilities for managing and prioritizing the field work of both crews and contractors, delivering visibility and metrics on overall vegetation management program effectiveness
The solution provides direct benefits to utility operators, enabling lower cost vegetation management operations, a reduction in reactive maintenance and reduced exposure to regulatory fines, wildfire risk and environmental impact.
“Trimble Vegetation Manager combines geospatial data with practical work management and analytics,” said Tim Gallagher, general manager with Trimble’s Utilities & Public Administration Division.
“Now transmission and distribution operators and foresters have access to a full vegetation management solution to reduce operational expenses, increase regulatory compliance and meet their system reliability and sustainability goals—all in one software package.”
