San Diego Gas & Electric Co. recently used drones to conduct visual inspections of its overhead electrical equipment in wildfire-prone areas of Ramona.<\/p>\n
This latest set of inspections were completed on Sept. 1, said SDG&E spokesman Roland Franklin.<\/p>\n
SDG&E representatives say these ongoing inspections help support safe and reliable electric service.<\/p>\n
Residents were told they did not need to be home for the inspections, but if SDG&E workers could not access their equipment due to locked gates, animals or other obstructions, then company representatives would contact residents to schedule an appointment.<\/p>\n
The drone pilots have a company ID badge, so they are credentialed and recognizable, according to a notification letter that was emailed to some customers on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n
SDG&E representatives said the company has been using drone technology for the past decade. The purpose is to reduce the risk of wildfires and to improve SDG&E response times during an emergency, they said.<\/p>\n
In addition to using drone technology to monitor wildfires and pinpoint causes of power outages, SDG&E officials say they also use the drones to conduct aerial inspections of electric and natural gas facilities and equipment in remote areas that are difficult for ground crews to reach.<\/p>\n
A Risk-Informed Drone Inspection (RIDI) program is part of SDG&E\u2019s Wildfire Mitigation Plan efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Risk-Informed Drone Inspection (RIDI) program enhances the evaluation of our poles and equipment within the High Fire Threat District areas and Wildland Urban Interface,\u201d SDG&E officials said.<\/p>\n
The RIDI program, which began in 2023, continues to perform about 13,000 pole inspections per year. Benefits include increased efficiency when inspecting electric poles, powerlines and equipment; images that provide a different perspective of the tops of poles and equipment where ground crews are unable to reach; and drone accessibility in remote, rugged areas, SDG&E officials said.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit sdge.com\/RIDI or sdge.com\/crews, or call the SDG&E customer hotline at 844-765-6388.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Gas & Electric Co. recently used drones to conduct visual inspections of its overhead electrical equipment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9551,178951,161658,15550,74,76,75,5094,21699,3000],"class_list":["post-452891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-drones","tag-electrical-equipment","tag-inspections","tag-ramona","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdge","tag-utility","tag-wildfire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}