From Hurricanes to Hardening: How a US Utility is Storm-Proofing the Grid with Pointerra3D
In the hurricane-prone Southeast United States, where storm seasons bring annual challenges for utilities, one power utility company hit hardest decided to act decisively. Confronted by aging infrastructure, growing vegetation risks, and a lengthy pole inspection backlog, they turned to Pointerra3D to transform how their network is assessed, maintained, and rebuilt.
The result? A shift from reactive to proactive operations, powered by statewide LiDAR and analytics that delivered real-time insights—and real results.
ACHIEVEMENTS AT A GLANCE
- Pole assessment time reduced from 20 mins to 2 minutes across 65,000 poles
- Automated storm damage reports post two major hurricanes
- Predictive vegetation models using multisensor data
- 66,000 double poles identified, cutting a multi-year task down to 6 months
When Storms Strike, Speed is Everything
Every minute counts after a major storm. Historically, damage assessment relied on manual field crews scouting for downed poles, leaning structures, or missing equipment—a process that took up to 20 minutes per pole and slowed recovery efforts dramatically.
By integrating post-storm LiDAR data with the utility’s GIS, Pointerra3D enabled an automated approach to rapidly pinpoint damaged infrastructure and flag it with precise location and feeder-level detail. What used to take hours now takes minutes. The time required to assess a single pole? Cut from 20 minutes to just 2—across more than 65,000 poles.
This workflow has already been battle-tested through two major hurricanes. Emergency teams now receive fast, accurate reports that allow them to prioritize the worst-hit areas and start restoring power sooner.
Smarter Vegetation Management with Predictive Growth Modelling
Vegetation growth is one of the leading causes of outages in utility networks, and traditional inspection cycles are both costly and inconsistent. This utility set out to change that by modeling future risk instead of just responding to past failures.
In partnership with Pointerra3D, they launched a proof-of-concept using multi-temporal remote sensing data—RGB, LiDAR, and multispectral imagery—to identify tree species, estimate growth trends, and define risk zones.
While still evolving, these predictive vegetation models laid the groundwork for smarter trim cycles and proactive maintenance planning. Over time, as statewide LiDAR data is updated annually, the models will become increasingly accurate—delivering better foresight with each pass.
Hardening the Grid, One Pole at a Time
Following the acquisition of another power company in 2019, the utility began a 10-year plan to modernize and harden its grid—especially in historically underperforming areas. A key step? Replacing thousands of legacy wooden poles with wind-compliant concrete ones.
Pointerra3D played a crucial role by extracting pole and wire features from LiDAR datasets and automating the identification of non-compliant poles. A structured JSON output fed directly into PoleForeman, an engineering design tool, cutting manual measurement time dramatically.
Again, the results spoke for themselves: 20 minutes reduced to 2 minutes per pole, streamlining the design process and accelerating the transition to a hardened, storm-resilient grid.
Cleaning Up the Grid: Tackling the Double Pole Problem
Storm recovery often leads to another persistent issue: double poles. These are legacy poles left in place after replacement, typically awaiting the transfer of telecom lines. Left unresolved, they become a regulatory and aesthetic challenge—delaying permits and frustrating municipalities.
Pointerra3D introduced a targeted workflow to identify, map, and classify double poles across the utility’s vast service territory. By analyzing over 600,000 poles, the platform identified 66,000 double poles, including 9,000 still carrying active telecom attachments.
As a result, a task that would have required years of manual inspection was completed in just six months, helping to clean up the network and accelerate community approvals.
Future-Proofing the Power Grid
This Southeast US utility didn’t just digitize traditional workflows—they laid the foundation for a more resilient, intelligent grid built for the challenges ahead. By leveraging statewide LiDAR collections and Pointerra3D’s scalable cloud analytics, they’ve enabled long-term transformation without the need for constant retooling.
With Pointerra3D, the utility is no longer just reacting to outages and maintenance backlogs—they're anticipating them. That’s what future-proofing looks like.
1. Efficiency and Accuracy
- Scalable workflows: built to grow with statewide LiDAR programs
- Lower total cost of ownership: reduced field time, fewer site visits, and less reliance on custom software
2. Cost Savings and Safety Improvements
- Smarter insights over time: models for vegetation, asset condition, and structural compliance become more accurate with each new data set.
- Storm-ready operations: Repeatable, proven workflows for emergency response and recovery.
3. Powering Organizational Change
- Digital Twin of the entire network: a centralized, constantly evolving view of infrastructure, accessible across teams.
- Faster decision-making: rapid triage, planning, and engineering with minimal manual input.
Ready to transform your utility operations with smarter, scalable solutions?
Whether you're managing storm response, vegetation risk, or network upgrades, Pointerra3D helps you move faster, cut costs, and make confident decisions—all powered by the data you already collect. Let’s build a more resilient grid, together.
Contact us today for a personalized demo of the platform or why not start a free 30-day trial to experience it for yourself.