The challenge
Cascadia Light & Power trimmed vegetation on a fixed five-year rotation, which meant crews cleared corridors that did not need it while fast-growing spans elsewhere brushed conductors between cycles. After two vegetation-caused outages in one storm season, the fixed cycle was no longer defensible to regulators or customers.
The approach
GeoGarmeux built an EO-based vegetation risk model covering the utility's full service territory. Weekly satellite imagery feeds a scoring pipeline in GeoGarmeux Atlas that rates every circuit by canopy proximity, growth rate, and outage history. Trim crews now work a ranked list instead of a calendar, and the model re-scores after every pass.
The results
- 100% of circuits scored and ranked by vegetation risk, updated weekly
- 38% fewer vegetation-caused outage minutes in the first storm season
- 22% of planned trim miles redirected to higher-risk spans
“We stopped arguing about where to trim. The map settles it every Monday morning.”