AEP Ohio drones are now taking flight to assess damage to the power grid at night — a potentially game-changing enhancement for getting your power back on faster after a storm.
AEP Ohio’s latest drones are equipped with NightSense technology, including obstacle avoidance and AI flight assistance. The machines were put to the test following Hurricane Helene, when high winds and heavy rains related to the storm caused extensive damage not just in Ohio but across other parts of AEP’s service territory.
Information gathered by drones proved extremely valuable to crews working to restore power following the storm. Because of the drones’ night-vision capability, crews were able to continue assessing damage even at night, over mountainous, rugged conditions that would otherwise have shut down foot patrols after sundown. Rather than wait several hours to complete damage assessment the following day, crews could see where issues needed attention and began repairs at first light.
For future storms, the benefits are clear: Equipment gets fixed more quickly, crews face fewer hazards and your power is restored more quickly.
A Look to the Future
Drones are playing an increasingly important role in serving our customers. For example, when crews worked to restore power following Helene, AEP Ohio drone pilots logged more than 25 hours of flight time, covering 83 miles of power lines during 124 flights. Because of the drones, crews were able to pinpoint storm damage safely and rapidly, allowing AEP Ohio crews to respond more efficiently.
Drones help AEP Ohio restore power faster and safer, which has the company looking to expand its drone fleet, certify more pilots with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and add NightSense functionality to more drones. Additionally, FAA restrictions and battery-life issues currently restrict how far drones can fly and how long they can stay in the air. As more drones take to the sky and these limitations improve, AEP Ohio projects our ability to quickly and efficiently perform damage assessment will increase even more — leading to faster restoration times for you.
Smart idea……
It’s great to see these improvements. Nice job. Keep up the good work.
This gives me an added sense of security. Thanks!
Those fellows have a skill all of their own .
can you use a bolder font? I am 89 yrs old
Hi John. I’m sorry you’re having troubles. Thanks for the note. I have passed your suggestion on to our graphic design team and am hoping they may have a good solution for you. I’ll be in touch with their response. Have a good day, sir!
John, you might want to try the accessibility settings in your browser. All browsers support making the type larger and increasing the contrast as part of native web accessibility standards. Here are links to two browsers (Chrome and Edge) and their respective settings:
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This is awesome but is it going to cause our rates to increase even though it will eventually save AEP money in reduced man hours?
Sounds like terrific progress.
This is so great!! Happy to hear!!
Sounds like a Great Idea to use drones. I am retired now, I know there is a lot of down time to walk through the right of way to check for problems. This is certainly a lot safer and a quicker way to assess for problems.
Hopefully they can apply this application in my service area to determine why we experience outages monthly. During the past year power has been out on average 1-2x per month. Seems whenever the wind blows or it begins to rain – we lose power, sometimes only for a minute, other times several hours. AEP – you can do much better. Feel free to reach out.
Hi Paul, thanks for letting us know. That’s not the kind of service we want to provide. Please send a message to our Customer Solutions team on Facebook or X or call 800-672-2231 so we can get more information about your situation.