Revolutionize your Vegetation Mangagement
Vegetation
VEGETATION MANAGEMENT EASILY REPRESENTS
THE HIGHEST COST ITEM FOR UTILITY OPS AND
MANAGEMENT BUDGETS.
Typically, crews are required to manually
survey and identify vegetation that needs
pruning, trimming, and removal, a process
which is time consuming, costly, and for
the most part, subjective. Most utilities
have their distribution feeders on a fixed
trim cycle (usually 4-6 years) regardless of
site specificity, and this is not always
effective.
There's a better way
The cost of clearing vegetation continues to
increase (it is estimated that the power utilities
sector spends between $6-$8 billion annually on
maintenance budgets for vegetation control
from overhead power lines) and yet budgets
remain more or less static. At EMPACT, we are
working with utilities to plan, implement and
track vegetation management activities in a
cost effective, data driven, and intelligent way
through our EVI (EMPACT Vegetation Insights)
solution.
Empact Vegetation Insights (EVI)
1
VEGETATION TYPE CLASSIFICATION
OF YOUR SERVICE TERRITORY
This important information will help you understand
and influence your right-of-way bids. Your territory
is (most likely) not homogenous and knowing the
distribution of different vegetation classes (forest
vs. pasture vs. brush etc.) across your service
territory helps to ensure you are not paying a flat
fee of clearance even when the level of clearance
difficulty may be different.
2
SOIL TYPE CLASSIFICATION
OF YOUR SERVICE TERRITORY
Different soils have different properties like fertility,
and moisture holding capacity (the amount of
water that a soil retains after normal drainage)
which in turn affects tree/vegetation growth. This
becomes important when you either have too much
precipitation (trees may fall if soils are too sandy
because the roots are not supported sturdily) or
when there are drought conditions (trees in sandy
soils will likely die faster than in clayey soils).
3
NATURAL TRIM CYCLE FORMULATION
For each Feeder
Trees will grow at different rates across your
territory depending on various factors not just
limited to the tree’s growth rate. With EVI, we can
prescribe a trim cycle specific for each feeder.
4
PREDICTIVE ENCROACHMENT
BASED ON WEATHER, GROWTH MODELS, AND ENVIRONMENT
Proactively assess risks taking into account soil
types, slope, weather, and drainage areas.
5
Endangered Spieces
BASED ON WEATHER, GROWTH MODELS, AND ENVIRONMENT
This gives you awareness about where you can and
cannot cut trees or spray and helps you stay in
compliance with EPA regulations.
6
Lightning Strike Density Classification
Of your Service Territory
Analyze the historical data on lightning strikes,
weather conditions, and wildfire occurrences to
predict high-risk areas and times for
lightning-induced fires. Pinpoint the location,
characteristics, and intensity of each strike.
7
CURRENT VEGETATION ENCROACHMENT
AND DANGER TREES
We can accurately (within an inch) show the
location of vegetation within the right-of-way as
well as outside the right-of-way but with the
potential to touch your power lines (Danger Trees).
8
Hazard Trees
Danger trees that have been structurally compromised e.g. dead or unhealthy trees.
9
Budget Optimization
Using your internal budget processes, we can help
estimate the cost of vegetation management per
feeder which ultimately helps to optimize your
vegetation management cost by allocating
resources where they are most needed.
10
EVI Integration
Into your current GIS system
If you don’t have one we will offer you a simple
ESRI based web application which you can use to
enter data, track your work, and deliver your
results.