A Former Lineman’s Perspective: Value of a Priority Matrix for Electric Utilities and Cooperatives

4-minute read

In this article:

• Learn about the importance of advanced digital inspections and a priority matrix.
• Explore the challenges faced by traditional inspection methods and Clearsight’s difference.
• Discover the value of subject matter experts and Clearsight’s customer portal in inspections.

Having spent years on the frontlines as an electric lineman, I’ve become all too familiar with the importance and challenges of thorough aerial and ground-line based inspections. These inspections are critical for maintaining safety for the public, operation teams, infrastructure, wildlife, and mother nature’s geography. 

While traditional ground-line visual-based inspection methods have been the standard in our industry, I have seen their limitations, firsthand.

By leveraging advanced digital inspection solutions, like those provided by Constellation Clearsight, the electric industry is transforming by identifying adverse conditions quickly, efficiently, and with unparalleled precision.

In this article, we will explore how Clearsight identifies and prioritizes conditions, offering a new perspective on inspections.

Advanced Digital Inspections – A New Era

Picture this: a typical inspection scene with the crew out in the field, manually searching for issues. The crew dedicates hours working diligently in the field, manually scouring for issues. This is the all-too-familiar, traditional inspection method that electric utilities and cooperatives deploy to maintain infrastructure. 

Traditional inspections are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and rely solely on the human eye’s capability to identify irregularities. 

However, Clearsight is revolutionizing another way. Our approach is through advanced digital inspections.

• Advanced Inspection Technology – Clearsight inspections deploy state-of-the-art equipment such as drones with high-resolution cameras. This technology, coupled with a proprietary customer portal that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to help identify and prioritize findings, allows for the detection of issues that could be invisible to the naked eye.

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – Despite the significant role of technology in our operations, our people are integral to each inspection. Our SME team is comprised of seasoned industry experts who have earned the trust and confidence of electric cooperatives and utilities across the nation. They bring a wealth of practical, hands-on field experience in electrical grid inspections.

Our SME team has over 360 years of combined experience. Those years were dedicated to transmission and distribution inspections, harnessed bucket hours, lineman belts, hooks dug into wooden poles, and boots on the ground. 

Using our Workbench-based technologies, our experienced inspectors can identify, prioritize, and annotate conditions found on any distribution or transmission system. 

The result of these inspections leaves utilities and electric cooperatives with a precise workload management strategy so they can act in remediating emergent and non-emergent conditions, overall reducing major safety concerns, as well as mitigating outage-based conditions.

The Priority Matrix – Addressing Critical Issues First

How do you determine which identified conditions to address first? Clearsight has covered this aspect with our condition-based priority matrix.

This matrix generically defines common condition repair priority ratings. It is how Clearsight’s SMEs categorize detected conditions based on their level of severity, potential risk, and the urgency for repair.

When annotating condition priorities, Clearsight’s SMEs consider various factors like the condition’s potential impact on safety, service delivery, and time required for the remediation. With these factors in mind, they can identify unique customer conditions and requests, custom tailoring each rating to meet customer expectations.

The priority matrix, combined with our user-friendly customer portal, makes it easier to address the most emergent issues first, mitigating risk, improving operational efficiency, and providing consistent service delivery.

Clearsight Customizes Priority Matrix Charts to Unique Systems

Clearsight has completed nearly half a million aerial and groundline-based asset inspections across twenty-four states of the continental U.S. As you can imagine, each inspection area had its own unique case-by-case conditions that existed as well as special requests such as unique conditions creation, priority rankings, vegetation analysis, and inventory analysis. 

Clearsight SMEs coordinate and communicate these instances as follows:

• Prior to inspection deployment, Clearsight SMEs host a universal condition priority matrix meeting to discuss their generic condition priority matrix.
• During this meeting, the SMEs walk through the conditions to be found and establish priority ranking expectations.
• The discussion is open to addressing potential unique issues that may arise on any electrical system.
• These conversations lead Clearsight SMEs to develop a unique custom-tailored workload management procedure designed to identify conditions specific to unique areas of concern.

This line of communication and expectations allows the product to conform to meet every demand.

Bottom Line

While traditional methods may miss key details, Clearsight’s advanced digital inspection solutions provide a more comprehensive coverage resulting in actionable insights. These insights equip you with the necessary information for informed decision-making and future workload management planning. With Clearsight inspections, you are not only addressing immediate concerns; you are paving the way for a safer, more reliable, and consistent electrical grid.