By Kevin Jacobs – CEO at NM Group
After a recent round of business meetings in the North East I have been reflecting on the current challenges and hot topics within the power industry.
At the moment there is a real interest within utilities in maximizing the value of existing spatial data, such as LiDAR. Clearly LiDAR surveys are often a major investment and utilities rightly want to make sure they can take advantage of any further value that can be obtained. We are often asked if LiDAR data specified for vegetation dept. use can be used for engineering purposes and vice versa. In most cases we can re-process existing data to extract value for other utility departments and this has been really well received.
I happened to visit a number of distribution companies and there is clearly a growing interest in how LiDAR can be used effectively on a distribution network. In the past prohibitive costs have made getting the benefits of accurate spatial data difficult to justify. However, in the last year new capture and sensor technologies have re-written the rule book on costs. This has opened the way for more accurate geospatial strategies to be used that have demonstrable operational savings – most clearly with lowering vegetation management costs.
NERC compliance is a topic that is always high on utility agendas. NM Group recently published a commentary on the NERC best practice guide, and this is something that generated real interest. Our guide explains how remote sensing and geospatial techniques can make sustainable compliance a simpler task for a utility (our commentary can be downloaded here).
That’s all for now, thanks for reading.