How drones are helping utilities stay ahead of wildfire season
With climate conditions worsening and compliance scrutiny increasing, this is a critical moment to rethink wildfire mitigation and emergency response strategies for utilities and public safety agencies. The problem? The work is growing, but headcount isn’t. Utility infrastructure is aging, terrain is unforgiving, and each year brings more severe fire conditions.
In this recorded session, learn how leading electric utilities are turning to Skydio drones—remotely operated and field-proven—to scale fire prevention, disaster response, and infrastructure inspection workflows across the Four R’s: Risk Reduction, Readiness, Response, and Recovery. Whether inspecting remote utility assets or supporting storm response, utilities are using drone technology to cover more ground, more safely, and in less time—with inspectors operating remotely and sharing real-time visual data across departments or with external partners like first responders.
You’ll learn how utilities are:
- Running automated drone inspections in hard-to-reach, fire-prone regions
- Reducing wildfire ignition risk by detecting issues like damaged utility hardware and vegetation overgrowth
- Responding faster—without waiting on crews in hazardous areas
- Achieving 3x inspection volume and reducing emergency response times by 50%
- Scaling with Skydio’s proven approach to drone deployment, training, and repeatable workflows
- Corey and Jon, if you want to introduce yourselves,
- please.
- Go ahead, Jon.
- Oh, uh, hey, everybody. I'm Jon Henson. I'm a program manager.
- I embed with, uh, major utilities, and I help with larger deployments,
- um, with an emphasis on our, our new Dock product.
- Hey, I'm Corey Hitchcock. Uh, I'm a utility solution specialist at
- Skydio.
- [clears throat] I come from a, a twenty-three-year career in the utility
- industry. I was a-- I've worked at all.
- I was a lineman, a troubleman on transmission
- and distribution, and
- then, uh, worked in the distribution control center
- and ultimately built
- a, uh, a drone program at Southern Company, uh,
- where we had about four
- hundred drones, uh, and two hundred and seventy-ish pilots when I
- left to come, uh, left Southern to come work at Skydio.
- So, uh, excited to talk to you all today.
- All right.
- Corey, you wanna kick us off?
- Yeah. So, so we're here, uh, kind of to
- talk about, uh, wildfire mitigation and how
- drones can impact that. And you guys are aware of the
- problems of wildfires in the United States.
- Uh, you know, in twenty twenty-three we had fifty si-
- over fifty-six
- thousand, um, wildfires, uh, a hundred and
- thirty, uh, lives lost, a bunch of structures lost, and almost
- two point six million acres impacted.
- And, uh, today we wanna talk about, uh, what we can do with
- drones that can maybe, uh, improve some outcomes.
- Next one.
- So, so as-- Since nineteen eighty, uh,
- wildfires have been increasing at an average rate of a hundred and twenty-five
- percent year over year. Um, and you know,
- the problem's not going away. Um, go ahead, Tommy.
- But something you can do with drones is enhance situational awareness.
- Um, collection of, of data, capturing
- video, understanding your system, uh, allows for
- the improvement of fire behavior models.
- Um, it allows for, uh, pre- and
- post-fire assessment and analysis of your system.
- Um, and then more importantly, um, it helps
- you identify problem areas on your system, uh, where you need to
- do a little bit more work or, uh, or pay closer attention to it.
- And so today we're gonna talk about the, the four Rs.
- Uh, we've kinda identified the problem, and we've
- figured out how we can mitigate some of that risk using these four Rs, and the
- first is risk reduction.
- Um,
- go ahead, Tommy.
- There you go. Uh, so risk assessment.
- Um, understanding the state of your system
- is super important.
- Um, and then under-- you don't have the resources,
- or typically you don't have the resources to get eyes on a hundred percent of
- your system a hundred percent of the time.
- Um, but drones can be used kind of as a force
- multiplier to allow
- you to capture that data, uh, faster, um,
- and then make better decisions. So that, that better
- asset man- inspection and maintenance allows for a
- more accurate risk assessment to the, to the fire areas,
- um, sometimes limiting your public safety
- power shutoff
- requirements or, um, or limiting your, uh,
- EPSS requirements. But, um, once you understand your
- risk assessment, uh, then you can prioritize your
- inspections, and using drones you can capture more data
- throughout the day,
- um, you know, throughout one inspection day with one,
- one
- person. So, um, really a force multiplier.
- Next one we're gonna talk about is readiness.
- Um,
- in the readiness world, um,
- vegetation management and understanding,
- uh, the potential fire risk is super important.
- Um, we have the ability using our Dock or hand
- flown operations to capture two-D scans
- of, of your right of ways, and then we're able to, from
- those two-D scans, use products to build models
- and, um, understand your clearance from the
- conductor, your, um, any problem trees
- along your right of way. Um, there are some programs that allow you
- even to speciate trees. Um, and then,
- uh, your contractor oversight is something a lot of our utility
- customers have
- gotten a lot of value out of because, um, you know, they, they
- wanna make sure that they pay their contractors for, uh, what-- the
- work they actually do, and they wanna make sure the work is done.
- So that, that contractor compliance is, uh, is super
- important.
- Um,
- and then having the, the understanding allows you to, to
- plan your work better with the, uh, limited resources that you have.
- Um,
- next one, Tommy.
- So this-- The next one we're gonna talk about
- is response.
- So, um, in the response world,
- when you have an ignition event, um, understanding that ignition
- event and being able to react to it is, uh, you know,
- super important.
- Um, go to the next one.
- All right. And this is a little video of, uh, of what it looks like when
- you're,
- um, when you'd be patrolling post-event, right?
- If you have fault location analysis and you can really pinpoint
- down to, uh, the location on the, on your circuit or on your system
- that you have a problem or you get a report from the public- Uh,
- you can,
- um, launch this drone from a dock based on
- your system and be
- able to patrol out to a marked location, like you see in
- this video, and, uh, and get eyes on.
- Uh, you know, if it's an ignition event, you can hang out there and get the right
- people to the right place, help them find the right, uh, routes to
- get there, and kinda partner with your, uh, public safety partners
- by being able to, uh, share a
- real-time link or a ready link out, um, you know, to the,
- to the responding parties. It's, it's, uh,
- you know, allows you to increase your situational
- awareness and track the, uh, you
- know, the changes or the ignition event over
- time.
- John, if I can put you on the spot, can you talk a little bit about how some
- of our
- customers out on the West Coast in your territory are using drones to, to do
- this? Um, I know you've got a lot of stories.
- Yeah.
- So, um, what, what you're looking at here is, like,
- an augmented reality
- marker.
- Um, and those can be generated from a pretty
- wide
- variety of sources. It doesn't simply have to be, um,
- you know, an ignition event. But having those, we're, we're starting to
- integrate into different systems and have those pop up.
- So going out, um, with the West Coast utilities, it,
- it's really
- important because fire is such a big concern here.
- Um, they're going out and they're using the drone, um,
- to fly to that point
- along the right of ways, um, autonomously.
- And when they get there, they're able to go ahead and inspect, um,
- the, the potential fault issue and clear it faster.
- And if it's something they can't clear, what's really beautiful is we're seeing,
- um, instead of rolling a truck with, like, a patrolman, for instance, and, and
- then saying, "Okay, I need an entire crew," so
- you're rolling two trucks,
- you're rolling a drone,
- and then all of a sudden you get the right amount of people for the job
- in the first, uh, first pass. So
- that's just, like, one example of how this kind of
- configuration linked
- into a, uh, a system of alerts,
- we're starting to see that's, uh, deployed.
- Awesome. Thank you.
- Corie, back to you.
- So, um, one of the challenges a lot of our West
- Coast
- utilities are facing is, uh, the public safety
- power shutoff. So, uh, as winds increase, we've seen it in the
- news, um, the, uh, ignition risk goes up,
- and so, um, systems are de-energized or placed
- in an enhanced protection mode, so kind of one-shot mode.
- Um,
- and then once the weather clears up, uh, or let me
- back up, once you de-energize your system, you don't have any real
- understanding about, uh, problems that have happened, 'cause
- typically you understand when problems happen on your system based
- off of, uh, uh, you know, customer reports, lights out,
- uh, AMI meters showing up that something's wrong.
- So once, once you de-energize it, you've got to patrol every
- single bit of it. Um, and so, uh, our West Coast
- utilities have it, are starting to evolve, uh,
- different inspection or patrol methods to allow them to
- capture, uh, or inspect the structures
- and, and, uh, conductors and that kind of thing.
- Um, they're a lot-- They're able to inspect the very
- hard-to-reach
- stuff with drones and then continue their standard
- inspection
- with, um, you know, vehicles or, you know, stuff that's close to
- roads. Um, John, what do you think a- about the, uh,
- the PSPS stuff?
- Yeah. We're, we're doing some interesting stuff with
- the dock.
- Um,
- it's not, at this point, economical to maybe put a dock on your
- entire system, like
- it wouldn't make sense. But there's gonna be those areas that
- are very
- challenging to clear,
- and being able to quickly deploy and
- cover those areas is invaluable to getting the
- system back up and running.
- Um, you're gonna have that intersection of
- very hard to go and patrol
- and very high fire danger, and oftentimes those things really do go
- hand in glove because it's-- the reason it's high fire danger is it's,
- it's mountainous and it's got a lot of shrubbery and
- grass and growth. And,
- um, there's a, there's a place that's particularly close
- to my house that
- meets this bill, um, um, pretty, pretty well,
- and we'll show that in a bit. But
- putting a dock in a strategic location can cut
- hours, if not days, off of trying to patrol some really
- challenging line.
- Um, also, like helicopters, I, I hear they run, like, $5,000 an
- hour.
- Um, and some utilities' SOPs are they can't run their helicopters
- in dusk into the evening,
- um, whereas they can use drones. So
- putting that all together,
- uh, we're seeing strategic placement of drones
- in very challenging
- areas, very remote areas, being hugely beneficial
- and hugely impactful.
- Yeah. And in those remote areas we're installing
- these docks, we're, we're
- installing them with, uh, with,
- um... We have some customers who are installing them with solar battery
- backups. They're installing them with, uh, Starlink in the field
- because there's no connectivity out in these rural and remote spots.
- So there's ways to get it done. Um, the next one, Tommy.
- So there's a business case for this, uh, acceleration of the PSPS
- restoration. Um, one of our West Coast utilities made a
- report to a governor and, uh, they identified that it
- costs them $2.69 per minute of customer minute interrupted.
- Um, based off some publicly available data,
- we ran some
- quick calculations and- Uh, in one year, if they were
- able to take 30 minutes off of their, um, documented
- PSPS, uh, events, they would be able to save nine
- point six million. And you could see how it multiplies as you
- start
- shaving time off. Um, I think it's very easy to say, and I feel
- pretty confident to say, that for every one of the PSPS events,
- we could
- have at least saved 30 minutes. And that's time from
- all clear to, uh, the switching-- when switching is
- complete and the restoration has happened.
- So, um, anyway, go ahead, Tommy.
- And I think this is John's video, so go ahead. Oh, no.
- This is, uh, this is a video of a, uh, demonstration of what it
- looks like in the cloud, um,
- control center configuration so that you could operate the
- drone. You've got your map on the left, you've got your drone operating on the
- right, and you could be thousands of miles away
- or, or anywhere
- in the United States with a, uh, with an internet connection to do it.
- Next one, Tommy.
- Uh, so as John mentioned earlier, um, that
- response to ignition events is super important.
- Uh, the quick response, uh, sometimes isn't the best as the
- correct response, so making sure that you get the right people, uh,
- equipment, and material out there is super important.
- Um, and then the ability for the Skydio cloud
- to integrate
- with, uh, your backend workflows, whether that's your OMS
- system, your, um, uh, work management system,
- or, you know, just your Esri GIS system.
- And the last one we're gonna talk about is recovery.
- Um, go ahead, Tommy.
- So post-incident, that recovery can be, uh, a multi-year
- process. Um, during that recovery time,
- uh, you're out there mapping, you're out there tracking, um, you know,
- uh, vegetation growth, fuel assessment, and then
- you're capturing data that allows you to feed more accurate
- models,
- um, and then allow you to, um,
- support those wildfire detection static cameras that you may
- have or, or other, other things that you have on, um,
- on your system.
- Um,
- and then I think this is the video that I wanted.
- Yeah, this... Go ahead, John.
- Yeah. So, um,
- out near my house, uh, we have a California,
- uh, state wildlife area,
- and working with my utility, um, we did a little
- experiment, like what it would be like to fly,
- um, along the lines out there and clear them.
- And having, like, pretty solid knowledge of the area
- and what it would take to start hitting these trails, um,
- they're not vehicle-friendly in a lot of areas
- and, um, I hike there sometimes with my kids.
- It's, it's,
- uh, to get really deep down in there and to get to the lines, what can
- be, you know, two and a half miles as a crow flies can very
- quickly turn into
- seven miles, um, and just hours and hours
- of walking. So it's an example of how we
- can very quickly go along these lines, clear them,
- um, ensure that there is, uh, nothing on it,
- and then come back safely.
- Um, all made possible, um, through
- Skydio, ADSB, um, air traffic,
- and, uh,
- the ability for us to
- avoid obstacles.
- And John, it's a little hard to tell, but how, how far away were you flying
- from, from-
- Oh
- ... while doing this?
- Um, I think I roughly hit a little over two
- and a half
- miles, and I wasn't,
- um,
- I was kind of casually flying. Like, I wasn't,
- wasn't trying to, like, be really super efficient
- and thread the needle.
- So somebody who's a relatively novice pilot, like I've,
- you know, not done this thousands of times, I
- was able to just
- pick up the drone and go execute a mission
- and return to base.
- Okay. I think if we go back in the video, you can see that you're, you know, about
- at least thirteen thousand feet away from the, the controller, which is pretty
- cool.
- Yeah.
- Cory, I interrupted you. Go ahead.
- Oh, no, I was just gonna say the ability to do
- this is, is also based on
- our, um, our FAA Part one oh seven waiver, which allows
- us to travel, um, as long as we're able to
- infrastructure shadow. So we're staying within, uh, uh, a
- hundred feet of our structures as we're flying through there.
- But, um, with our waiver, we can pretty much fly, um,
- all over the country as long as there's airspace, and we are that here.
- Awesome. Um,
- so that is gonna bring us to the end.
- Um,
- all right. So we have a couple of-- a handful of round table discussions
- prepared,
- but I wanna keep this informal, and this is meant to have everyone
- participate. So there's a lot of domain expertise in
- one room here,
- um, so please feel free to put your questions
- in the chat,
- unmute yourself and ask them, or raise your hand, um,
- if, if you have any questions for us or the broader group.
- Uh, but until we have someone jump in, I think we'll start with the, the first
- question here.
Watch Time
17 Mins 50 Secs