BETHEL, Vt. (WCAX) – Green Mountain Power has a new tool to help expedite repairs during widespread outages that officials say will end up keeping the cost down for ratepayers.
The destructive storms that have wrought havoc on Vermont this summer highlight what experts say is the kind of extreme weather the state is likely to see in the future. And Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, is preparing by taking to the air.
GMP officials Thursday launched one of six new drones near a substation in the Royalton-Bethel area. Since the beginning of the year, the power company has conducted more than 150 flights, most following strong storms that knocked out power to thousands. “It’s been a very busy summer,” said GMP’s Justin Grenier.
The drones give power crews a birds-eye view of the damage before making repairs. It’s a process that Grenier says gets the lights turned back on quicker, saving the company — and their customers — cash. “Not only do we know where it is exactly — we are able to pinpoint that — but we also know what we are going to need when we go out there,” he said.
Roughly 80 percent of GMP’s lines are in rural, hard-to-reach areas. The drones also provide important safety information for line workers. “Steep inclines, it could be rocky. Then, depending on the weather system, it could be downed trees, downed lines, poles, infrastructure,” Grenier said.
And more damaging storms are in the long-term forecast. “Every time you have a storm, you have the potential to have more fuel for that storm, that is more water vapor that — given the right conditions — can be squeezed out of the atmosphere,” said Jonathan Winter, who teaches in the geography department at Dartmouth College. He says extreme weather due to climate change is on the rise. “When we go to run our climate models and look into the future, we see that same signature. We expect more extreme precipitation in the future. So, it is something that is relatively robust that we should be preparing for.”
In addition to the drones, GMP is also burying lines and increasing energy storage capacity. “Being able to leverage technology to solve modern problems,” Grenier said.
Power crews say restoration times are sped up by hours if not days. Because of that, GMP is considering expanding its drone fleet to all 15 districts in the state.