How Mapping Technology Could Help With The Impact Of Power Outages
As a business owner, you understand the importance of being prepared for any kind of disruption that may occur. From natural disasters to technological failures, these unexpected events can seriously impact your operations and financial stability. One such disruption that often goes unnoticed until it’s too late is power outages caused by downed power lines. This blog will explore why providers need to know when power lines may go down and how dynamic mapping technology can provide an effective solution.
The Impact of Power Outages on Businesses
Power outages caused by downed power lines can have a significant impact on businesses, regardless of their size or industry. Without electricity, businesses are unable to operate, resulting in loss of productivity and revenue. In addition, power outages can also cause damage to equipment and data loss, leading to additional expenses for the business.
While maintaining utility infrastructure is quite the critical task, nevertheless, utility players often rely on expensive and time-consuming manual operations to monitor and repair important assets.
The Importance of Knowing When Power Lines May Go Down
One of the biggest challenges for businesses during power outages is the need for more information about the cause and duration of the outage. Power outages can result in significant financial losses for businesses. According to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute, U.S. Power outages alone cost $119 billion annually.
Typically, when a company experiences a blackout, they have no way of knowing whether it’s due to a downed power line or another issue. This lack of knowledge can lead to delays in restoring operations and potentially increase the financial impact on the business.
Moreover, it’s important for businesses to plan for future outages. With this information, companies can make necessary preparations, such as investing in backup generators or rescheduling critical operations to minimize the impact of potential outages.
By getting updated and frequently refreshed data on utility assets, providers can be better informed and businesses can save on potential costs associated with unplanned power outages.
How Mapping Technology Can Help
Traditional methods of identifying downed power lines rely on manual inspections and customer reports. These methods are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and delays. This is where updated mapping technology comes in.
Smart mapping can help increase situational awareness while dramatically reducing operating costs for players in the utilities space. For example, by having frequently updated data on power lines, utility companies can plan and adjust services to tackle maintenance needs before a line goes down unexpectedly.
By crowdsourcing street-level imagery, Navigate Maps is designed to continuously update with fresh data, resulting in better insights for everyone. Additionally, by applying AI to the frequently refreshed imagery, Navigate Maps can help providers identify key utility assets near the road and monitor the health of power lines and poles.
For example, an intelligent map like Navigate Maps can help quickly identify areas with extensive overgrowth to enable proactive pruning and maintenance procedures to minimize outage risk. It can also detect pole conditions and defects such as crossarm damage, deteriorating pole tops, leaning poles, “double poles” and more, to save time on asset inspection operations.
With updated mapping technology like Navigate Maps, providers can prioritize areas that require immediate attention, leading to more efficient use of resources and potentially reducing maintenance expenses.
Trending Toward a New Approach
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, having access to updated information is crucial for the success of any organization. This is especially important regarding our utilities, as they can significantly impact businesses and people in surrounding areas.
By crowdsourcing imagery and applying AI to unlock insights from fresh data, Navigate Maps offers a solution for providers in the utilities space to stay informed about the status of key assets, increase efficiency, and save on potential costs associated with unforeseen power outages.
Learn more about our mapping solutions and how you can help contribute to an accurate, dynamic view of our world.
