August 2025 – Wildfires are becoming an increasingly severe global challenge, with rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and climate change creating perfect conditions for disasters. The devastation caused by wildfires is evident worldwide: the 2019–2020 Australia Bushfires (Black Summer), the 2023 Greece wildfires in Rhodes, Canada’s 169 reported wildfires by July 2023, Turkey’s 19 wildfires since mid-July 2023, and France’s massive fire burning over 2,500 acres along the Mediterranean coast. More recently, the 2025 Los Angeles wildfire underscored the growing risks.

While wildfires have natural and human-related causes, power grids have also emerged as a significant ignition source. Grid-related wildfires can occur due to falling trees, vegetation contact, aging components, or sparks from failing infrastructure. As utilities face increasing regulatory scrutiny and public pressure to mitigate these risks, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data solutions are proving to be transformative.

The growing role of AI in wildfire mitigation

Last week, a new executive order from President Trump called for agencies to create a roadmap leveraging AI, data sharing, modeling, and mapping capabilities to identify wildland fire ignitions and improve weather forecasting for better emergency response. A federal fund of $3.8 billion, although mostly a reallocation of existing resources, underscores the urgency for advanced wildfire management.

This directive aligns with the growing role of technology in wildfire prevention, including AI-based grid inspections and image data that leverage vegetation management and condition-based insights to ensure the physical grid is safe and in good working order. These insights help minimize fire risk.

Federal efforts, such as the recent $3.8 billion wildfire management fund and the executive order calling for AI-driven modeling and data sharing, could make this type of image and condition data more accessible to utilities and research initiatives. By promoting standardized data-sharing frameworks, subsidizing advanced imaging technology, and supporting AI training programs, these efforts enhance AI models by giving them larger, higher-quality datasets for defect detection and risk prediction, ultimately improving accuracy and reliability.

For utilities, this policy shift emphasizes the need to go beyond traditional inspections, leveraging AI platforms like Grid Vision^® to detect early-stage defects and proactively mitigate wildfire hazards.

Why grid-related wildfires are rising

Power grids are under stress due to climate-driven heat waves, severe droughts, and increased vegetation growth. Aging infrastructure often fails to keep up with these conditions. Factors contributing to grid-related wildfires include: 

• Tree or branch contact with powerlines. 
• Exploding material or sparks from faulty components. 
• Arcing or conductor failures due to loose hardware. 
• Dry vegetation surrounding powerlines acting as fuel. 

Conductors play a key role in preventing fire hazards. To ensure safety: 

• Vegetation must be cleared around lines. 
• Conductors must remain separated using spacers. 
• Cotter pins and related hardware must remain securely fixed. 
• C-hooks and chain shackles must be inspected for wear, corrosion, or deformation. 

Loose or upside-down cotter pins and worn or damaged C-hooks compromise the safety barrier by weakening the points where conductors and insulators are secured. This increases the risk of conductors falling or generating sparks when in contact with nearby surfaces. A single cotter pin failure on a 100-foot lattice tower can have devastating consequences, and a worn C-hook can create stress points that accelerate component failure under wind or load. Yet manually inspecting 50 cotter pins and multiple C-hooks per tower is both tedious and prone to human error. 

AI-supported virtual inspections are a game-changer

The 2025 Los Angeles wildfire and the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, and the 2025 Eaton wildfire in Los Angeles highlight the devastating consequences of delayed or insufficient grid inspections. The Camp Fire remains the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, underscoring why utilities must move beyond slow, manual inspection cycles.

Southern California likely has 3,500 to 4,000 lattice-steel transmission towers. Manual climbing inspections take about 2 hours per tower, meaning a single inspector would need 3.5 to 4 years to complete one full cycle. In contrast, drone-assisted inspections reduce that timeline to 7 months to 1.5 years, resulting in an efficiency gain of up to 80%.

AI-powered image analysis further accelerates the process by detecting and classifying defects within seconds, removing the need for hours of manual image review and enabling fast, data-driven maintenance decisions.

Solutions like Grid Vision® create a digital representation of the grid by linking high-resolution imagery, asset metadata, and grid topology into one platform.

Key benefits include:

• Faster defect detection and automated workflows
• Lower inspection costs and reduced manual efforts
• Safer operations by minimizing tower climbs
• Regulatory-ready, auditable visual data
• Early detection of high-risk defects, such as corrosion or faulty hardware

Case study: AI-supported inspections and advanced analytics for wildfire risk management

A leading North American utility leveraged AI-powered inspections to strengthen its wildfire prevention strategy. Using drone flights combined with AI analytics, the utility inspected 47 lattice towers and 52 wooden poles, capturing 3,465 high-resolution images in total.

AI findings:

• 781 instances of upside-down cotter pins were detected out of 11,000 cotter pin images, within seconds.
• Loose cotter pins, chain shackles, and contaminated insulators were flagged for immediate maintenance.
• Additional anomalies such as woodpecker holes, flashed insulators, and cracked poles were identified.

Project outcomes:

• The customer confirmed their grid’s good condition regarding C-hooks and shackles.
• Maintenance teams could target defect repairs without climbing towers, improving safety.
• AI’s speed and accuracy allowed the customer to proactively correct wildfire-relevant defects, preventing potential ignition events.

Vegetation management and conditional data

Vegetation is a primary fuel source for grid-related fires. AI-powered platforms use high-resolution imagery combined with conditional data from inspections to monitor vegetation encroachment and assess the overall health of grid assets.

Grid Vision® includes a “Vegetation Right of Way” filter that allows utilities to:

• Identify assets in densely vegetated areas.
• Pre-plan field work, reducing time and site visits.
• Assess site access needs before sending maintenance crews.

By combining vegetation data with condition-based insights, utilities can create a more accurate view of wildfire risks and take proactive measures to mitigate them.

Beyond inspections: predictive insights

AI-driven platforms offer more than just defect detection. With historical data and year-over-year comparisons, utilities can identify patterns that may increase wildfire risk, such as:

• Wooden poles rotting near water due to humidity.
• Asset degradation based on age or material type.
• Recurring vulnerabilities across similar asset classes.

The holistic asset data in Grid Vision® enables utilities to overlay additional datasets, such as roads, gas pipelines, or water bodies, onto their grid map. This contextual data supports better planning, risk prioritization, and faster incident response.

Common vulnerabilities and incident investigations

When a failure occurs, such as an MV substation outage, traditional utilities may lack recent, high-quality imagery to reconstruct the cause.

With AI-powered inspections, utilities gain:

• Accurate, structured visual data of substations and transmission lines.
• A full audit trail for regulatory reporting.
• The ability to conduct root cause analysis and prevent future incidents.

For example, one utility used inspection data to locate and replace a lightning arrestor flagged by regulators as a fire hazard. Without the AI-driven inventory, they would not have known where these components were installed.

Federal and industry momentum

The $3.8 billion federal initiative and policy emphasis on AI highlight the government’s recognition that data-driven approaches are critical to wildfire mitigation. This is not just a challenge for California but a national and global issue.

As utilities seek to modernize operations, partnerships between AI inspection providers, satellite imaging companies, and wildfire modeling solutions will play a critical role. Platforms like Grid Vision® can provide ignition source risk data, feeding into larger wildfire prevention ecosystems.

Key steps utilities can take now

In summary

Wildfires are no longer an isolated risk, they are a global crisis intensified by climate change and aging grid infrastructure. AI-powered tools like Grid Vision® give utilities the ability to detect 60 percent more defects than traditional inspections, reduce operational costs, and most importantly, prevent fire ignitions before they happen.

From cotter pin detection to vegetation monitoring, virtual inspections create a digital twin of the grid, enabling utilities to compare asset conditions over time, plan maintenance more effectively, and improve safety for both workers and communities.

The message is clear: AI and data-driven insights are the future of wildfire prevention. With federal funding and policy momentum supporting innovation, now is the time for utilities to embrace technology that will save time, reduce costs, and protect lives and infrastructure from catastrophic fires.

August 2025 – Evergy, a leading U.S. utility serving 1.7 million customers across Kansas and Missouri, has renewed its commitment to digital asset management through an extended collaboration with eSmart Systems. Building on the success of a 3.5-year digitalization and inspection program powered by Grid Vision^®, Evergy will continue to expand its digital asset strategy to create a future-ready, data-driven grid.

The original program transformed over 10,100 miles of Evergy’s transmission network into a centralized, visual asset repository, creating a full digital inventory of every transmission asset down to the component level. Over 1 million high-resolution images were linked to asset records, while 70,000+ annotated defects were cataloged to prioritize maintenance and repairs. This complete and searchable asset inventory has enabled engineering, real estate, and operations teams to access reliable, up-to-date data, dramatically improving data accuracy and situational awareness.

With this renewal, Evergy will continue to assess transmission inspections while expanding the use of Grid Vision^® to its distribution grid and digitalizing new asset types, including the full digitalization of inspections and imagery for underground vaults. By consolidating these asset types into a unified platform, Evergy will gain a deeper understanding of asset health across its entire network, enabling more accurate risk-based analysis and investment decisions.

Through this renewal, Evergy and eSmart Systems will continue working together to advance virtual inspections, enhance safety by minimizing unnecessary fieldwork, and support the transition toward a modernized, fully digital grid.

The continued collaboration will enable Evergy to expand its digital asset inventory, streamline inspection workflows, and unlock deeper insights to support the growing demands of a modern utility grid.

About Evergy

Evergy (NASDAQ: EVRG) provides electricity to 1.7 million customers across Kansas and Missouri. Headquartered in Kansas City, Evergy is a vertically integrated utility committed to delivering safe, reliable, and affordable energy. The company is actively investing in grid modernization and sustainable infrastructure to support a resilient, future-ready energy system. For more information, visit https://www.evergy.com/

About eSmart Systems

eSmart Systems is a global leader in AI-powered solutions for the inspection, analysis, and digitalization of critical grid infrastructure. Through our Grid Vision® platform, we help utilities transition from manual inspections to intelligent, image-based asset management, creating a digital inventory of their transmission and distribution networks. This enables improved asset data quality, safer operations, reduced inspection costs, and extended asset life. With more than 20 years of international experience, eSmart Systems supports utilities worldwide in building smarter, more resilient grids for the future.

12 August 2025 – eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision^® has been named a winner in the Best SaaS Solution for Energy, Utilities or Telecoms at The 2025 SaaS Awards.

Operated by global cloud computing awards body The Cloud Awards, The SaaS Awards judges have completed their final round of assessment of the finalists, resulting in winners being selected in each category.

The SaaS Awards celebrates outstanding levels of innovation and excellence in the software-as-a-service industry, from business process improvement solutions to cutting-edge uses of AI, and both niche and generalized services. The program received entries from organizations of all sizes across the globe, including the USA and Canada, the UK and Europe, the Middle East, and APAC.

The program will return to welcome new submissions in 2026, continuing to recognize the latest advancements in software-as-a-service.

To view the full list of winners, visit The Cloud Awards website.

Entries are now open for the long-running Cloud Awards program, which recognizes organizations at the forefront of cloud computing. Submissions are open until October 24, with earlybird entries accepted until August 29. Entries to other Cloud Awards programs, including The FinTech Awards and The Security Awards, both concluding in 2026, are also open.

About The Cloud Awards

The Cloud Awards is an international program which has been recognizing and honoring industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing since 2011. The Cloud Awards comprises five awards programs, each uniquely celebrating success across cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud security, artificial intelligence (AI), and financial technologies (FinTech).

Winners are selected by a judging panel of international industry experts.

About The Cloud Awards Program

The Cloud Awards identifies and celebrates the most innovative organizations, technologies, individuals and teams in the world of cloud computing. The program spans 36 categories, including ‘Best Cloud Infrastructure’ and ‘Best Cloud Automation Solution’. 

About The SaaS Awards    

The SaaS Awards focuses on software-as-a-service, with categories segmented into overall SaaS excellence, by sector, business operational processes, or outstanding uses of certain technologies (such as AI).

About eSmart Systems

eSmart Systems is a global leader in AI-powered solutions for the inspection, analysis, and digitalization of critical grid infrastructure. Through our Grid Vision^® platform, we help utilities transition from manual inspections to intelligent, image-based asset management, creating a digital inventory of their transmission and distribution networks. This enables improved asset data quality, safer operations, reduced inspection costs, and extended asset life. With more than 20 years of international experience, eSmart Systems supports utilities worldwide in building smarter, more resilient grids for the future.

With global electricity demand projected to grow by 4% in both 2024 and 2025*— one of the fastest growth rates seen in two decades — utilities face the pressing challenge of ensuring their grids can meet this surge reliably and sustainably.

Rising energy consumption and the integration of renewable energy sources make it essential not only to add capacity but to do so smartly and sustainably. We have seen first-hand there is one crucial element to meet this effectively: accurate grid asset data.  

Without this, utilities are essentially navigating blind. By understanding the true state of the grid’s condition, utilities can not only handle current loads but also plan smartly for future expansions and repairs. 

At the heart of effective grid management is accurate asset data. 

For utilities, maintaining a complete and up-to-date picture of their infrastructure is essential. Without it, effective operations management, future planning, and smart investment decisions become nearly impossible.  The first step toward improving the accuracy of grid asset data can begin with activities like grid inspections or a data quality improvement activities like grid inventory programs.

For either of these activities, utilities need to ensure that the data collection is focused on image-based asset data, collected with high-resolution cameras that capture detailed views of the infrastructure. These images, when processed through advanced tools like Grid Vision^®, provide a visual inventory of assets, cataloging them with pinpoint accuracy and linking the asset to additional information like inspection data. 

What benefits can you achieve with image-based accurate asset data? 

Once utilities start collecting and leveraging accurate image-based data, they can unlock several critical benefits that support operational efficiency and long-term grid resilience: 

1. Efficient Maintenance: Precise image-based data enables condition-based maintenance. This allows utilities to identify assets that require attention before they fail. This proactive strategy reduces outages, extends asset life, and prevents costly emergency repairs​. 
2. Better Investment Decisions: Accurate, consistent and objective insights of grid infrastructure condition allows utilities to prioritize capital investments based on risk. For example, virtual inspections enabled by AI can highlight critical areas where repairs are needed, helping to allocate resources where they will have the most impact​. 
3. Enhanced Planning for Growth: Accurate image-based asset data supports improved  forecasting for future grid expansion or reinforcement. As demand rises, utilities must not only repair existing infrastructure but also build new assets.  
4. Improved Safety and Compliance: Knowing the exact status of grid components ensures compliance and reduces the risk of incidents. This compliance aspect is particularly important as aging infrastructure and increased renewable energy integration strain the grid​. 

Data as the Cornerstone of Grid Management 

Accurate, reliable asset data is more than a convenience—it’s essential to managing current operations effectively and preparing for sustainable growth.  

By embracing advanced digital tools, like Grid Vision, and leveraging the power of AI, utilities can transform their data collection and asset management practices, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving energy landscape​. 

*Source: International Energy Agency (IEA) report, 2024 forecasts on electricity demand growth. 

Want to see a demo of Grid Vision? Fill this form here  

eSmart Systems, a global leader in AI-based solutions for inspection and maintenance of critical energy infrastructure, has successfully raised EUR 30 million in new capital. The funding round has been led by TiLT Capital, the French energy transition platform of the Siparex Group, and with Quanta Services participating as a strategic investor.

Oslo, Norway, October, 2024 – eSmart Systems announces that it has raised EUR 30 million. TiLT Capital Partners, a French growth capital impact fund led the round, with major US energy infrastructure solutions company Quanta Services, Inc. (Quanta), joining as a strategic investor. Additionally, major existing owners Arosa Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Equinor Ventures, Nysnø Climate Investments, Future Energy Ventures and Kongsberg Group have participated in the capital raise.

The capital raise comes at a time of very strong demand for eSmart Systems, which has recently signed several strategic contracts with prominent customers such as Alliander and E.ON. With a total of EUR 63 million raised over the past two years, eSmart Systems not only reaffirms strong investor interest but also solidifies its position as one of the best-funded companies in the industry. This financial strength positions eSmart Systems uniquely to capture significant market opportunities and drive innovation in AI-based solutions for critical energy infrastructure.

Strong market uptick

A global pioneer in AI-based solutions for inspection and digitalization of critical energy infrastructure, eSmart Systems operates in a market that is currently experiencing a strong uptick due to a combination of factors.

Electric utilities face significant challenges with a global grid at the risk of collapse due to aging infrastructure, increased energy consumption and more frequent extreme weather events. Lack of quality asset data compromises their ability to efficiently manage the grid.

Growth driver in North America

With Quanta joining eSmart Systems as a strategic investor, the two companies plan to collaborate on virtual inspection and grid digitalization services in the North American market, leveraging Quanta’s extensive scale, resources and expertise and eSmart Systems’ cutting edge digital solutions.

“We are very excited to bring Quanta onboard as an investor and a strategic partner. Our joint capabilities will be unmatched in the market, making us uniquely equipped to help transition utilities to more data driven and proactive operations.”, says Bache.

About eSmart Systems

eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. With the Grid Vision® portfolio, the company provides Inspection Management and Asset Information Management solutions and services to utilities globally. Grid Vision provides a data-driven and condition-based approach to infrastructure inspections and support utilities to reduce inspection costs, improve inspection safety, improve the quality of asset data and prolong asset life. More information about the company can be found at www.esmartsystems.com.

About TiLT Capital Partners

Created in 2018, TiLT Capital joined Siparex – an independent French specialist in Private Equity – in 2021 to become the Energy Transition platform of the Group. This collaboration has created a unique platform, combining the experience of a major player in Private Equity with the expertise of a team with over 50 years of experience in the energy industry, to meet the growing financing needs of the Energy Transition. More information about the company can be found at https://www.tilt-capital.com/en/

About Quanta Services, Inc.

Quanta is an industry leader in providing specialized infrastructure solutions to the utility, renewable energy, technology, communications, industrials, and pipeline industries. Quanta’s comprehensive services include designing, installing, repairing and maintaining energy and communications infrastructure. With operations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and select other international markets, Quanta has the manpower, resources and expertise to safely complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope. For more information, visit https://www.quantaservices.com

Our new investors are joining Arosa Capital Management, Energy Impact Partners, Equinor, Future Energy Ventures, Kongsberg and Nysnø Climate Investments and together we will continue to support the energy transition through Grid Vision.

Data-driven trust issues, a real-world problem for electric utilities. 

When you are responsible for the biggest machine in the world which entire societies rely upon to function, trustworthy asset data is a must. However, industry reports show that one-third of utility executives see poor asset data quality as a major challenge as it carries cross-functional impact on operations, planning and compliance. 

The lack of trust in data is due to fragmented storing across multiple systems, and in multiple formats with a lack of audit trails, causing inconsistency, inaccuracies and can lead to severe consequences for the utility such as unplanned outages, an increase in field visits, costly compliance risks and poor capital planning and investment decisions.  

Improving asset data management and ensuring high-quality data is often focused on centralizing the information, but without processes in place to validate and maintain the information these efforts quickly become a wasted opportunity, something several of our customers have reported to be true. 

How do you uplift the quality of your data at scale?  

Our Grid Vision^® solution is developed by utility professionals, for utilities to not only uplift the quality of data, but to also include visual data, which is validated and maintained over time, through an established three step process ensuring you do your quality uplift right the first time:  

Qualification: Understanding the starting point & identify gaps 
To be able to uplift the data quality, you need to understand where you are and what you want to achieve with your data.  

• Validating your data rules and models 

Your asset data strategy needs to be tied to your business rules and built on the correct data model for your business to enable utilization.  

• Verify your gaps and test the methodology 

A small sample of assets are captured in the field and compared with the asset data in the system. As well as capturing the data, images of each asset are taken and linked to the asset in the field.  The data is validated through a filling rate and qualified to assess the quality level. This step also identifies gaps in the data and tests the process in practice. 

This stage qualifies gaps in your data to determine if there is a data quality issue. It provides an insight into image-based accurate asset data and tests the process end-to end so you can successfully scale.  

Scaling: Enriching data 
As your foundation is built, filling the gaps and enriching existing data is next. By using the qualification of the sampled asset data, the asset management strategy can be rolled out to all assets. In this stage, thousands of substations can be digitalized and visually documented with a clear audit trail and consistent capturing processes within a time frame so that the data remains accurate and current.  A complete, image-based digital inventory is created through high-quality data, ready to be utilized by utility teams.  

Utilization and Maintenance
Using an image-based digital inventory, utility teams can make data-driven decisions across their business processes such as network planning, maintenance and investment decisions with confidence, as the data is accurate with a clear audit trail. However, a digital asset requires maintenance to ensure it continues to represent its physical equivalent in the field. This requires continued updates to your data to reflect and validate changes to the physical asset through maintenance activities and updates.  

Grid Vision supports every stage of the asset data management journey through its software and services, supporting each step in the lifecycle of infrastructure assets.  

Listen to how Stedin used this phased approach and utilized Grid Vision to avoid potential failures among 22,000 substations: Watch webinar here

Schedule a demo at Enlit Europe 2024 and witness the power of Grid Vision^®

eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. Our Grid Vision solution provides a data-driven and condition-based approach to infrastructure inspections and asset management.

Discover how Grid Vision is revolutionizing infrastructure inspections for top energy providers at our stand 5.L12.

If you do not already have a ticket to Enlit Europe 2024, we are pleased to offer you a free Expo Pass or discounted Summit Pass through the link below.

Book a demo at our booth! Get free Expo Pass or discounted Summit Pass

At eSmart Systems we have always been pushing the envelope to enable our utility customers to get the most out of technology to help solve their business problems.  We pioneered virtual inspections for critical infrastructure over 10 years ago and are working with 60+ global utilities to inspect and digitalize power grid infrastructure every day. We were the first to market the use AI to support grid inspectors, to make the inspections faster and with more objectivity.

We are now breaking ground again with a new way for our customers to get the biggest return on using AI for virtual inspections!

AI is an amazing tool for supporting virtual inspections. And honestly, the first three models can be made by anyone. Running 50+ models at industrial scale is a completely different ballgame.  

This is our turf. With our unparalleled volume of customers and data, we empower all our customers using AI. 

The subsequent challenge is that utilities have different definitions of what they consider a defect. This is the challenge we are now addressing and solving with our new patent pending AI technology. 

Our patent pending AI technology allows our AI to adapt to each utility’s specific needs while still capitalizing on global training data and models. While performing an inspection in Grid Vision^®, our AI will adjust, adapt and learn, on the fly. This will reduce the number of false positives and dramatically increase the value of the AI. 

Our customers will see our AI adapting to their own definitions of defects. By using our new patent pending technology, we enable our AI to adapt to each customer’s feedback to our AI while using Grid Vision. Which means improved performance of AI for defect detection, reduced retraining, and reducing inspection time.   

The underlying patent pending technology is not limited to powerline inspections or image recognition. This methodology is applicable for anyone who uses feature extractors whether they are working with images, sound and even text. Anywhere you meet the feature extractions limitation, our patent pending technology will be helpful in getting the quickest ROI. 

Want to learn more about our new patent pending AI technology and how it will help you get quicker ROI on your virtual inspections contact us today: Contact us today.

Our approach to AI-assisted virtual inspections is different. We have an asset centric approach to all of our solutions and build your image-based digital asset while you inspect as we know that data can support grid owners in their operations.

What is an image-based digital asset?
This is a digital representation of your physical grid linking your asset to your asset data, inspection data, images, meta data and grid topology. 

Why would you need this data?
You may not have easy access to this image-based data today in your core IT systems. This data gives you another dimension of insight into your physical grid, the mechanical state of your grid through structured and tagged photos linked to inspection data, grid topology, meta data and a clear audit trail. 

We hear from utilities that images taken of their grid by field crew is often not tagged, unstructured, not linked to an asset and difficult to access. If there are images, they are on a USB stick somewhere, on someone’s mobile phone or in a database that takes ages to load.

What value can an image-based digital asset give you?
From working with 50+ utilities globally we have seen our customers utilize the image-based digital asset in Grid Vision^® in various ways and have summarized the top 10 common use cases below:  

1. Improved capital planning
Our customers have now based their investment plans on accurate asset data and risk. Supporting them to prioritize their capital planning. 

2. Decreased unplanned outage time
Utilizing Grid Vision as part of the outage management process to check the impacted assets and then plan the correct tools and expertise before going on site has seen our customers decrease CAIDI by 28% (43 mins). 

3. Identifying common vulnerabilities
Our customers have saved hours from eliminating field visits by identifying assets at risk within Grid Vision at a desk within hours instead of days.

4. Supporting emergency maintenance 
Providing Grid Vision to emergency response teams to check for structure types before sending out the crew to the field has saved our customers time and shortened time to restore grid faults.

5. Wildfire mitigation 
Multiple customers are using Grid Vision to identify assets at risk from wildfire within hours by searching for components at risk at a desk and providing the visual data to field crews to go and fix.  

6. Supporting regulatory reporting and major incidents 
Our customers are using Grid Vision to confirm the state of an asset before an incident for root cause analysis and regulatory reporting.   

7. Improving situational awareness and business decision 
Our customers are using Grid Vision in virtual meetings with leaders to demonstrate challenges with projects.  

8. Maintenance & planning
Grid Vision is used by maintenance teams to identify inventory, materials, skills, right of way before going on site.  

9. Siting land rights 
For new builds, our customers are checking Grid Vision to confirm any siting land rights for new projects. One of our customers identified an undocumented family cemetery on a potential new substation site.  

10. Maintenance strategy  
Grid Vision is used to support maintenance strategies, one of our customers identified assets failing before end of design life through Grid Vision. This insight helped them to re-prioritize their maintenance strategy to avoid unplanned asset failures.  

By leveraging Grid Vision’s image-based digital asset, our customers are unlocking multiple core use cases and saving their teams time, improving safety, reducing costs across multiple departments and improving grid resiliency. 

We do more than provide virtual inspections, we start with the asset itself and link the data that is needed to support your asset management processes. 

Thinking of making the transition? Contact us today to start your journey.

Repower which produces and distributes power to more than 48,000 customers in Switzerland, has partnered with eSmart Systems to digitalize and automate their grid inspection process. The program will utilize eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision^® solution, which supports the full inspection and maintenance workflow with AI.

• Transitioning Repower’s grid inspections from manual to automated powered by AI.
• Grid Vision AI-supported software will be used to inspect their HV and MV grid.
• eSmart Systems will deliver inspection services for Repower AG’s overhead lines over the course of the partnership.

This partnership will enable Repower to provide safer, more accurate and efficient inspections that will provide greater visibility into their grid assets to support their asset management strategies for grid resiliency and reliability to support growing demand and transition to low carbon generation. 

eSmart Systems will deliver the program as an inspection as a service and will utilize drones for the image capture with automated flight patterns to ensure the data is captured consistently and accurately with improved safety. For this program the actual grid inspection will be conducted within Grid Vision powered by AI and eSmart Systems will be working with regional drone operators for the image capture.

About eSmart Systems

eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. With our software solution Grid Vision^® we revolutionize how utility companies operate and maintain transmission and distribution networks. eSmart Systems offers a data-driven and condition-based approach to infrastructure inspections that can be managed from a single platform. We support companies worldwide by ensuring reduced costs, safer inspections, and prolonged asset life. 

About Repower

Repower is an international energy utility with its operational headquarters in Poschiavo. (Graubünden, Switzerland). Repower has been operating as an electricity producer, distribution grid operator and energy trader for more than 100 years. Its key markets are Switzerland and Italy.

Repower builds, operates and maintains distribution grids, substations, transformer stations, kiosks and supply lines right up to the house connection in Prättigau/Rhine Valley, Engadine/Valposchiavo and Surselva. The total length of the grid managed by Repower is around 3,000 kilometres.