Whomp, Whomp, Whir: That Low-Flying Helicopter? It’s PG&E

Press release from PG&E:

A Bell Long Ranger and/or a Bell 407 helicopter equipped with the LiDAR and high-resolution imaging will survey electrical equipment throughout Northern California to identify potential wildfire risks.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) crews are currently surveying by helicopter electrical distribution lines, other equipment and nearby vegetation to spot and prevent potential wildfire risks throughout Lake County and Humboldt County. The flights began in late April and will continue through late May.

Helicopters equipped with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors and high-resolution imagery technology will evaluate PG&E powerlines and adjacent trees in rural areas. At each inspection point, the helicopter may hover for 10 minutes.

“Throughout the North Coast, PG&E is doing everything possible to mitigate wildfire threats, including leveraging advanced technologies like aerial LiDAR. Surveying by helicopter allows us to safely access remote areas and gather highly accurate data on our equipment and nearby vegetation. We understand that a low-flying or hovering helicopter can be noticeable—and at times disruptive—for customers, which is why we’re communicating in advance. The technology we use is focused solely on our electric assets and surrounding vegetation, and it is not used to observe people or private property. This data helps us identify where maintenance and safety improvements are needed to reduce wildfire risk,” said Dave Canny, Vice President of PG&E’s North Coast Region.

The majority of the helicopter surveying activity will take place in Lake County and Humboldt Counties. Below is a breakdown of locations where helicopter surveying may be observed:

• Humboldt County – In and around the areas of Eureka, Garberville, Arcata, Hoopa, Fortuna and Myers Flat
• Lake County – In and around Kelseyville, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Lakeport, Clearlake Oaks and Upper Lake

The helicopter surveys will be along distribution powerlines every day between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., weather permitting. Helicopters will be flying low at an altitude of about 500 feet but will occasionally hover at times as low as 200 feet.

A surveyor in the helicopter will collect the data on PG&E’s powerlines, poles, and the surrounding trees and brush located along distribution circuits within or adjacent to extreme (Tier 3) and elevated (Tier 2) wildfire risk areas (as defined by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) High Fire-Threat District Map). This data is used to create a 3-D simulation of our facilities.

Additionally, the data is used to inform PG&E’s machine learning artificial intelligence risk models to predict the potential risk of catastrophic wildfires from vegetation contacting electric lines.

Utilizing multiple methods to gather data—including ground, aerial and climbing patrols, physical testing of poles and the use of infrared and LiDAR sensing —PG&E plans to complete inspections of transmission and distribution structures in extreme fire-threat areas, which includes more than 390,000 distribution poles and nearly 39,000 transmission structures.

For more information on how PG&E is working every day to reduce wildfire risk, visit www.pge.com/cwsp

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California.  For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.