NV5 Geospatial Launches Prune Optimization

NV5 Geospatial, powered by Quantum Spatial, North America’s largest geospatial data firm, today announced the launch of Prune Optimization, a predictive modeling platform that enables electric utilities to enhance vegetation management programs with risk-based assessments. Using information derived from existing lidar and historical data, utilities can leverage Prune Optimization to prioritize tree trimming activities by taking into account the risk posed by individual trees and other operational constraints.

“Trees are to blame for a large percentage of outages, and  vegetation management is the single biggest cost for electric utilities. Yet, utilities have only started to look at proactive, risk-based management programs, rather than the traditional cycle-based ones. NV5 Geospatial’s Prune Optimization platform will help utilities improve grid reliability through better decision making, while also saving them money through greater efficiency and the ability to target areas that have the most potential for problems.”  – Ian Berdie, VP of Innovation. 

Vegetation is one of the largest sources of outages, accounting for more than half, according to a recent survey, Geospatial Analytics, Resilience and Extreme Weather Readiness. The majority of respondents also noted that they use data to analyze risk, but budget constraints often prevent them from investing in the data they need.

The Prune Optimization platform takes a phased approach to identify relative risk to target vegetation management work where it will have the most impact. With extensive expertise, NV5 Geospatial first identifies several attributes associated with vegetation-caused outages that can be modeled from high-density lidar and provide a relative risk score. Utility-specific data, such as historic tree failures information or other factors, can be analyzed to enhance results further. The final risk scores will provide a quantitative assessment of combined risk, enabling utilities to develop work plans that prioritize vegetation management mitigation efforts and result in greater operational efficiency.