AI transforming utility asset management
Jan 2025
Learn how to inspect over 1,100 km of transmission lines in just 11 minutes with Nearmap AI: Automate inspections, reduce risk, and improve accuracy.
Jan 2025
Managing vast utility infrastructure networks presents significant challenges, as power transmission lines, and water or gas pipelines often span hundreds or even thousands of kilometres.
Maintaining these vast networks requires regular inspections and maintenance to ensure that risks — such as vegetation encroachment, building proximity, and other hazards — are identified early.
Traditionally, this would have been done by workers manually inspecting assets — time-consuming, costly and potentially error prone.
But the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and high-resolution aerial imagery enables asset management automation, saving time, reducing costs, and improving accuracy.
Utility companies are revolutionising their asset maintenance and protection workflows with Nearmap AI.
One of the standout tools in our suite that makes integration easy is the Nearmap AI Feature API, designed specifically for streamlined utility asset management.
Let’s take a closer look at how it works.
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Why AI for asset management?
With AI-powered location intelligence, utilities can now automate large portions of asset management workflows to deliver:
- Cost-effectiveness: Automated AI inspections significantly reduce the need for on-site visits, saving time and resources.
- Speed: AI can inspect hundreds of kilometres of network infrastructure in minutes, meaning faster risk response, minimising downtime and maintaining service reliability.
- Accuracy: AI detects risks such as encroaching vegetation or proximity of buildings, more consistently than human inspections.
- Scalability: AI can easily scale to scan and inspect large areas, a game-changer for utilities managing thousands of kilometres of infrastructure.
- Enhanced safety: AI can identify potential risks and asset degradation before they cause safety hazards or service interruptions.
The image below shows how Nearmap AI can identify features, at scale. This example highlights three different levels of vegetation (very low, low, medium & high) in green; natural pervious surfaces in pink; asphalt in yellow; and, concrete slab in orange.
More than 130 features are detectable with Nearmap AI, such as roof rusting and ponding, tree overhang, junk and wreckage, vegetation debris, water bodies, and more.
The API transforming utility geospatial workflows
The Nearmap AI Feature API allows utility companies to automatically analyse assets and surroundings using precise aerial imagery combined with AI data. This enables highly specific, automated asset inspections tailored to specific utility needs.
Here’s how it works:
- Precision data targeting: Rather than downloading large, unmanageable datasets, the Nearmap AI Feature API allows for targeted data requests. Utilities can define a precise area of interest — for example, a transmission line corridor — and request AI-detected information for that specific location.
- Real-time insights: With the Nearmap AI Feature API, utilities can ingest real-time updates about potential risks. AI automatically detects features such as buildings, water bodies, vegetation, and other objects that could threaten utility infrastructure.
- Automated workflow: The entire process, from requesting data to stitching together AI results, can be automated, allowing utilities to manage large-scale networks without constant manual input.
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How to inspect 1,100+ km of transmission lines in 11 minutes with AI
Let’s walk through a real-world example of how the Nearmap AI Feature API can transform asset management for an electricity utility. In this case, an electric utility needed to inspect over 1,000 kilometres of transmission lines in the Greater Brisbane area.
Manually inspecting such a large network would need significant resources and take a long time to complete. Instead, the utility used the Nearmap AI Feature API to automatically detect buildings within 20 meters of their transmission lines — a potential risk factor for power outages or damage.
The process was simple:
- Define the area of interest: The transmission network is divided into smaller segments (900-meter sections), with 20-meter buffer zones created around each line. This allows for targeted AI analysis of specific areas where buildings might be encroaching.
- Request AI data: For each segment, the AI Feature API is requested to detect buildings within the defined buffer zone. This request can be automated, allowing for fast, systematic data collection.
- AI detection: Nearmap AI detected buildings near the transmission lines, identifying potential risks automatically. This information was then fed back into the utility company’s system, highlighting specific areas where action might be needed — whether trimming vegetation, reinforcing lines or removing obstacles.
In total, Nearmap AI inspected over 1,100 kilometres of transmission lines in just 11 minutes, a task that would have been impossible to complete in that time with manual inspections.
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More use cases: AI-powered asset management for utility providers
While our example focused on transmission lines, Nearmap AI is versatile and can be applied to a wide range of utility infrastructure. Here are some additional use cases:
- Water utilities: For water utilities, it’s critical to monitor assets for potential flood risks, such as nearby water bodies or debris that could block pipelines or damage infrastructure. The Nearmap AI Feature API can quickly detect these risks and help utilities mitigate them before disaster strikes.
- Vegetation management: Overgrown vegetation is a common threat to utility infrastructure. With AI, companies can automatically detect areas where vegetation is encroaching on power lines or pipelines and take action before it causes damage or outages.
- Urban expansion: As cities grow, new buildings often spring up near existing utilities infrastructure. AI can automatically track changes in urban development, alerting utilities when new construction might impact their assets.
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Future-proof utility management with AI
AI-powered asset management isn’t the future — it’s happening now. Utility providers that embrace AI are positioning themselves to operate more efficiently, save costs, and maintain the highest levels of safety and service reliability.
At Nearmap, we’re committed to helping utilities unlock the power of geospatial AI. Whether you’re looking to streamline inspections, enhance risk management, or future-proof your infrastructure, Nearmap AI has the tools you need to succeed.
Ready to revolutionise your asset management processes?
Contact our team today and see how Nearmap AI can help.