Network

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS Effective management of network risks arising from vegetation requires a sophisticated pipeline of data capture and interrogation. Tim Hustwayte, Senior Client Manager at NM Group, explains how NETWORK / 21 / APRIL/MAY 2020 The future for vegetation management How then can this goal be achieved? Our premise is that you need to look at UVM holisti- cally and from the perspective of a data and information pipeline if you want to address that fun- damental problem. We believe that utilities in the future will be collecting even more data via a variety of means, suppliers and technologies. So being able to manage and harness this ef- fectively is going to be a crucial aspect of success. It's easy to list buzzwords and leave it there - but we know that we need to relate this to poles, towers, spans and trees. This means the creation of a digital twin and robust data model that can be analysed, un- derstood and actioned, within the data pipeline. With the digital twin complete, a utility will want the ability to interro- gate this virtual world, making sense of the various inputs to drive the best decision making. What could that mean? Well for T he ongoing manage- ment of trees around powerlines is a multi-billion annual activity worldwide. The implications of getting it wrong run into further billions: from the economic im- pact of network outages through to asset damage following natural disasters. Through many hundreds of collective conversations with the operational and manage- ment teams at transmission and distribution networks, we think we can summarise the common problem: "we want to reduce the risk to the network and the public while ideally spending the same or less". So how to manage trees more cheaply without exposing the network to greater risk? It can be tempting to „ nd incremental gains at the expense of arborists margins, however this is limited and potentially damaging to network resilience. It is our starters think weather forecasts in… uencing real-time tree risk, vegetation growth speeds for optimum tree management and real-time „ eld team location to best optimise time on site... you get the idea. Crucially, there needs to be analytics and smart so‡ ware that present this in a way that can be easily digested - provid- ing the tools for the utility to test diˆ erent scenarios and be con„ dent that the decision they are making is the very best one for the organisation. In our conversations with customers, we „ nd it useful to talk in terms of the UVM cycle and data … ows. I recommend you do the same. Look for areas where there are gaps and think about how technology and so‡ ware can be applied. By maintaining this higher-level view, you can focus on achiev- ing maximum bene„ t and move towards that ever-elusive goal of 'less risk, less spend'. view that to fully address the problem it will require a change in mindset and the ability to do things smarter - standing back and letting data science do the hard work. What we have come to believe is that networks don't actually have a tree problem, they have a data problem. Ef- fective actions in the „ eld come from good planning. Optimal planning can only occur if com- panies are furnished with the best information. Of course, this information relies on quality data paired with eˆ ective analy- sis. The whole process relies on good data passing through the entire work cycle, from „ eld inspection, analysis, planning, „ eld execution and report- ing. Transferring data from stage to stage is nearly always ine' cient, inaccurate or even impossible and therein lies an opportunity for networks to save money, reduce vegetation risk or more o‡ en - to achieve both.

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