Overstory models grid risks with integrated AI platform
Overstory has launched a grid risk management platform that uses AI models to help power utilities assess the risk of outages and wildfires caused by utility infrastructure. The system connects data in a single workflow, from identifying risks and prioritizing work to reporting to regulators.
- Overstory has launched a new integrated grid risk management platform.
- The system combines satellite and aerial imagery, LiDAR and weather data.
- AI models estimate the risk of outages and grid-related wildfires.
- The platform prioritizes work and documents the impact of completed interventions.
- The service can be viewed and tried at overstory.com/platform.
Grid risk data brought together in one system
According to Overstory, the new platform connects the company's AI-powered risk models with utilities' core operating systems. The aim is to help utilities assess where an outage or a grid-related wildfire is most likely to occur and then prioritize interventions accordingly.
The company says the models were trained on data from millions of kilometers of grid infrastructure and are currently used by North America's largest utilities. The platform combines satellite and aerial imagery, LiDAR data, weather information and data on the condition of the grid.
According to Overstory, utilities often keep this information in separate systems. Satellite imagery, outages and work instructions may therefore operate independently, making it difficult to determine where the greatest risks lie and which action would reduce them most effectively.
From forecasting to fieldwork
Overstory divides the platform's operation into five areas. The system first creates a detailed picture of the natural environment and the grid, then estimates where an outage or fire could occur and how that probability changes in response to weather and vegetation.
Utilities can then compare the costs and expected impact of possible risk-reduction measures. The platform sends work plans through the systems already used by planners, response teams and field workers. According to the announcement, partnerships with Watch Duty and Fulcrum, among others, play a role in this process.
Completed workflows are fed back into the Overstory platform. This allows utilities to document how much risk individual interventions eliminated and present the results to executives and regulatory authorities.
Platform launches amid rising expectations
Overstory is making the announcement at a time when utilities are facing rising energy demand, unprecedented extreme weather events and increasing pressure to be accountable. The company says extreme weather is the greatest risk to the reliability of electric grids in many regions, while power lines have played a role in some of the most severe wildfires in history.
“Energy providers know their grids intimately, but struggle to understand the dynamic nature of the environment around them,” said Fiona Spruill, CEO of Overstory. The company's leader said the platform connects the grid with its surroundings in a single view, allowing utilities to anticipate threats and act accordingly.
According to Overstory's November 3 announcement, the platform is being presented to energy industry leaders this week at the DTECH Northeast and San Francisco's Red Sky Summit events. Interested parties can view and try the service at overstory.com/platform.
For users, the announcement's main significance is that utilities can manage risk identification, intervention selection and fieldwork organization as a connected process. Overstory says this could help reduce outages, prepare for storms and prevent catastrophic wildfires that threaten communities.
