As wildfire risk continues to escalate, utilities and regulators are under increasing pressure to reduce risk while maintaining reliability and affordability. This whitepaper brings together insights from leaders across the wildfire ecosystem to explore how integrated, prevention-first technology is enabling smarter decision-making and measurable results.

It examines how connecting intelligence across weather, vegetation, assets, and operations helps organizations move beyond reactive approaches toward proactive, data-driven, and cost-effective wildfire mitigation strategies.

November 2025 – eSmart Systems has launched Verify AI, the first feature powered by its new and patent pending Adaptive AI technology. This advancement accelerates how utilities transform asset data into trusted insights that support safe and reliable grid operations.

Traditional AI has already improved digital inspection workflows. However, utilities still face high volumes of false positives, long deployment timelines, and difficulty tailoring results to local power grid requirements. These challenges impact decision-making and risk management.

Adaptive AI introduces a step change by enabling rapid value from limited or uneven training data. It adapts to each utility’s power grid and standards with minimal effort and improves continuously based on expert feedback.

Verify AI is the first feature based on Adaptive AI and is now available in the Grid Vision^® platform. Verify AI strengthens inspection workflows by reducing false positives and elevating only credible issues for review. This creates faster, more trusted results and allows inspectors and asset managers to focus on what matters most.

Adaptive AI will support additional features over time, including new defect detection and inventory capabilities, all designed to scale utility intelligence and improve operational outcomes.

Key benefits include:

• Faster deployment and value realisation
• Reduction in false positives and manual review effort
• Trusted insights aligned to each utility’s standards
• Stronger risk mitigation and prioritisation of critical work

Verify AI is available today in Grid Vision^®. More features powered by Adaptive AI will be released in upcoming product iterations.

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.

September 2025 – In a world where energy infrastructure must be smarter, faster, and more resilient, eSmart Systems and Equinor are leading a pioneering researching collaboration: the Infrastructure for Faster, more Accurate Analytics (IFAA) project.

Born from eSmart Systems’ deep roots in artificial intelligence and formally approved by the Research Council of Norway, IFAA is more than a research initiative. It is a step into the future of infrastructure inspection and defect detection. The project has already delivered transformative innovations, including Adaptive AI, a patent-pending technology that drastically reduces retraining time for AI models and enables real-time tuning based on user feedback.

Recognizing the project’s potential to establish a new benchmark for how utilities harness AI, eSmart Systems identified an opportunity to push the limits of model training and automation in real-world conditions. By developing smarter, adaptive systems that can continuously learn from data and feedback, the project aims to help energy companies achieve faster insight generation, greater operational accuracy, and more proactive maintenance strategies. Equinor joined as a strategic partner, bringing decades of operational expertise and a shared vision for AI-driven transformation. Together, the teams are exploring the frontiers of computer vision and applying innovations such as AI that learns from fewer examples, creating step-change improvements in efficiency and accuracy.

At the heart of IFAA is a commitment to open innovation. While each partner retains their intellectual property, learnings are shared across sprints, creating a dynamic feedback loop that accelerates progress and deepens insight. Both companies noting advancements in defect detection and AI-driven inspection automation. The collaboration now looks ahead to further expanding its impact by exploring varied use cases within each organization to drive even greater operational value.

Together, eSmart Systems and Equinor are turning AI into practical solutions that deliver value today while aiming to drive a smarter, safer, and more resilient energy sector for the future.

About Equinor

Equinor is an international energy company committed to long-term value creation in a low-carbon future. The company is headquartered in Norway with around 25,000 employees and with offices in more than 20 countries.

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.

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.

May 2025 – Fingrid, Finland’s transmission system operator, has launched a strategic initiative to enhance grid maintenance in collaboration with eSmart Systems, a leader in critical grid asset management solutions. The project focuses on the conditional analysis of Fingrid’s Extra High Voltage (EHV) portfolio, leveraging advanced aerial data capture and virtual inspections using GridVision^® software to improve grid reliability, safety, and sustainability.

Modernizing data capture and virtual inspections

As part of this initiative, Fingrid partnered with eSmart Systems and Airpelago. The project utilized automated flight patterns to capture data across 400 kV towers and spans along three powerlines. This approach introduced virtual inspections, significantly reducing the need for physical fieldwork and planned outages.

The captured data is processed in Grid Vision^®, enabling Fingrid’s maintenance service providers to conduct comprehensive inspections more efficiently and with less reliance on on-site visits. Grid Vision^® delivers a complete overview of each transmission tower’s condition, supporting proactive maintenance decisions and strengthening Fingrid’s overall asset management strategy. By digitalizing inspections, Fingrid is achieving improved data accuracy, new asset insights, enhanced safety, and high-quality decision-making data.

Fingrid’s vision for a sustainable grid

Fingrid continues to pursue technological advancements that support effective, data-driven grid maintenance. With the increasing complexity of energy transmission and rising sustainability expectations, the company remains committed to securing Finland’s energy supply while promoting a clean, market-based power system.

As Finland’s national transmission system operator, Fingrid plays a vital role in balancing electricity production and consumption. Through its extensive network, the company ensures the seamless flow of electricity across borders, connecting Finland to the Nordic and Central European power systems.

This project underscores Fingrid’s forward-thinking approach to grid management and reinforces its mission to provide uninterrupted electricity access, improve inspection safety, and accelerate digitalization in support of a more resilient and sustainable energy infrastructure.

About Fingrid

Fingrid Oyj is Finland’s transmission system operator, owned by the Finnish state and pension insurance companies. The company ensures a stable and secure electricity supply across the nation, transmitting electricity through the high-voltage network from production facilities to industrial consumers and electricity companies. As part of the joint Nordic power system, Fingrid plays a vital role in maintaining energy security and enabling cross-border electricity trade, ensuring a reliable and efficient power market.

About eSmart Systems

Smart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. Through our software solution, GridVision^®, we revolutionize how utility companies operate and maintain their transmission and distribution grids. We support utilities worldwide in reducing inspection costs, making inspections safer, improving asset data quality, and prolonging asset life by providing an image-based digital inventory representing all physical grid assets. eSmart Systems has more than 20 years of international experience in establishing and operating knowledge-based IT and energy-related companies targeting global markets.

AI is no longer a distant promise for utilities. It’s already helping grid operators streamline inspections, identify defects, and generate insights from asset data. These use cases offer real value, but common AI misconceptions often lead to AI being applied too narrowly and evaluated in isolation, without thinking through the larger system it needs to serve. An IEEE report states that up to 80% of AI projects fail to deliver value, and 87% never make it into production¹. Many of these failures are tied to insufficient, siloed, or ungoverned data, these don’t get fix by only focusing on better AI models.

That’s where progress can slow down. When AI is seen as the main objective rather than a component of a broader strategy, utilities can risk investing in tools that don’t scale, models built on poor-quality data, and insights that never reach frontline operations.

This article unpacks some of the most common AI misconceptions for utilities, and shows how shifting the mindset toward developing grid-wide intelligence vs just putting a magnifying glass on AI, can drive real, operational outcomes.

Once the POC works, are we ready to scale?

Most utilities start their AI journey with a proof of concept (POC). Pilot projects often succeed because they’re run in a bubble with controlled data, clear goals, and limited variability.

In the real world, scaling means not just the AI models, but the entire system: data quality, validation loops, human workflows, and the people. POCs don’t prove readiness, they prove potential. That’s an important difference.

That’s why it’s critical to partner with a team with proven operational experience at scale, because scaling requires more than good AI. It demands a holistic understanding of data, utility operations, and what it takes to make innovative technology work under real operational pressures and changing conditions.

Does more data mean better AI results?

Utilities sit on mountains of asset data, but volume isn’t the issue. Enough data is key, but quality matters far more than quantity. According to a study, 70% of AI projects fail to meet their goals in large part due to issues with data quality². To succeed, you want to know exactly what data you’re working with, how it’s been used, and whether it’s reliable. That requires version control, structured datasets, and a clear distinction between training, testing, and validation sets.

We have proven that in practice, more data isn’t always better. At eSmart Systems, we have reduced certain datasets from 500,000 to 100,000 images and achieved better outcomes by focusing on quality over quantity. By removing noise, correcting labels, and structuring data more effectively, the team achieved more accurate and explainable results. Uplifting data quality led to stronger model performance and greater trust in the results.

Should AI be the main goal?

AI isn’t the goal, better decisions are. High model accuracy means little if it doesn’t improve how you manage risk, respond to outages, or plan investments.

The real shift happens when utilities stop implementing AI as the destination and instead focus on building grid intelligence – structured, connected data that powers the entire operation. Inspections can be a key part of this shift, by capturing consistent, high-quality asset data that feeds a central digital model of the grid. With a central digital asset, operational teams can identify defects and inventory gaps in one platform, while planners prioritize investments based on condition, not assumptions. It also enables faster responses to weather events and ensures regulatory reports are grounded in real inspection data and not estimates.

Some major utilities (read more here) have made that leap, turning inspection programs into digital asset platforms that now drive maintenance, capital planning, and regulatory reporting.

Why look at the bigger picture?

Utilities face unprecedented challenges: load growth, renewable integration, aging infrastructure, and extreme weather. The old model: manual inspections, disconnected data, reactive maintenance – can’t keep up.

Grid intelligence platforms powered by AI, like Grid Vision, don’t just modernize inspections. They turn inspections into structured intelligence that supports every layer of grid operations. With visibility of asset condition down to component level, grid operators can act before problems escalate, avoiding outages, extending asset life, and allocating resources where they matter most. Focus on decisions, not just AI hype. Treat data as a strategic asset, not a byproduct. Building the intelligence layer your grid needs means investing in technology and processes that support risk mitigation at scale. AI plays a role, but shouldn’t be the only goal. Operational value is unlocked when data, insight, and action come together to drive smarter decisions for a stronger, more resilient grid.

Want to chat with our team about AI for utilities? Fill this form here  

Source¹: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10572277/metrics#metrics Source²: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/a-data-leaders-technical-guide-to-scaling-gen-ai?

When large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were plunged into darkness, speculation ran wild about the possible cause. Cyberattack? System failure? Climate stress?
Whatever the root cause, the real takeaway is this: our power grid is vulnerable, and we need to be ready.

This massive outage has thrown a spotlight on the fragility of modern energy infrastructure and the urgent need for greater resilience, better visibility, and faster insight.

Could it have been avoided?
With smarter infrastructure management in place, we believe it’s possible.

Let’s unpack the challenges and how digital intelligence can help strengthen reliability for the future.

The grid’s growing problem (it’s not just age)

Think of the modern power grid as an aging athlete, now forced to run faster than ever, in a hurricane.

Much of the grid was built between 1950 and 2000. It wasn’t designed for today’s load profiles, intermittent renewables, or the climate extremes we now face.

As electricity demand grows, this aging infrastructure is operating under increasing stress, making visibility into its condition more critical than ever.

Why traditional grid inspection and management isn’t enough

Here’s the reality:

• Time-based inspections are reactive and often inefficient
• Outdated views of asset condition lead to ineffective maintenance planning
• With millions of components in play, even the best teams can’t catch everything

This is why grid operators need to shift from reactive to proactive, from compliance to condition, and from siloed systems to centralized intelligence.

5 hidden threats to grid reliability (and what helps)

1. Extreme weather + Aging infrastructure = Recipe for collapse

Today’s climate exposes yesterday’s infrastructure. One weak pole or c-hook in a storm can trigger cascading failure.

What helps: Condition-based inspections, driven by real-time data, flag risk before failure, not after.

2. Data overload, insight deficit

Sensors, imagery, asset data – there’s more than ever. But data without structure is just noise.

What helps: Pattern recognition, trend analysis, and context-aware insights turn data into decisions.

3. Disconnected inspections

Finding one defect in isolation may mean nothing, unless you can see the broader picture. A crack here. A hotspot there. Are they linked?

What helps: Historical trends and geospatial analysis expose systemic risks before they escalate.

4. The AI illusion

AI isn’t magic, but it is a brilliant tool, and it needs quality data, clear objectives, and thoughtful application.

Used wisely, AI accelerates inspections, improves accuracy, and frees up resources to focus on what matters most.

5. The CapEx vs OpEx dilemma

Utilities often face complex decisions when allocating budgets between maintenance and long-term upgrades. Without clear insights into asset condition and risk, it can be challenging to prioritize the right actions at the right time.

What helps: Long-term asset intelligence supports more informed investment planning, helping teams decide when to repair, replace, or defer, with confidence backed by data.

What would help avoid the next outage? A smarter, more resilient grid

We are heading toward a future where grids can self-assess, self-optimize, and in some cases, self-correct.

A truly intelligent grid will:

• Adjust its own limits based on weather and load (for example, dynamic line rating, flexible load control, and optimizing asset performance based on updated risk conditions)
• Reroute power automatically when stress is detected
• Deliver real-time condition feedback from both 2D and 3D data
• Support predictive planning based on asset history and spatial intelligence

As trust in technologies like AI grows through proven results and real-world performance, we are moving closer to achieving a smarter and more resilient grid, even for critical infrastructure.
The technology is already here. Now it’s about implementation.

The bottom line

We may never know exactly what caused the Iberian blackout.
But we do know what can help us prevent the next one:
A more resilient, better-informed grid.

That means upgrading not just our infrastructure, but the way we monitor, maintain, and manage it.

It’s time to stop waiting for failure.
Use the tools available to gain better asset data, smarter insights, and the clarity needed to manage rising demand.

Repower enhances grid reliability with AI through Grid Vision^®

Read the case study!

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. 

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