Does Your Asset Management Team Have the Inspection Data They Need to Succeed?

Utility asset management teams are being asked to do more with less. As extreme weather events increase in frequency, demand on the grid intensifies, and infrastructure continues to age, expectations around reliability, responsiveness, and cost control are rising. The main priority of these teams is reducing outages. This includes planning long-term investments, managing real-time operational and supply chain risks, and supporting broader goals around decarbonization and electrification.

Yet for many utilities, the underlying data informing these decisions remains fragmented or incomplete. Inspection records, often treated as static snapshots, are underused in strategic asset management and current inspection data may not be adequate to facilitate high confidence decision-making. As inspection technologies evolve, the role of inspection data deserves reconsideration.

The Evolving Role of Inspections

Historically, inspections have been viewed as compliance exercises or scheduled maintenance tasks. Today, they can serve as a dynamic intelligence layer across the full asset lifecycle.

Inspection data can support:

• Planning and procurement by revealing patterns of asset degradation tied to environmental stressors, material types, or equipment age
• Commissioning and deployment through baseline documentation and verification of installation standards
• Condition-based maintenance by flagging early signs of deterioration that warrant closer monitoring or intervention
• End-of-life planning by tracking long-term trends and supporting decisions to retire or replace infrastructure

As utilities shift from time-based to condition-based maintenance models, inspections become more than a check-the-box requirement. They are a means of prioritizing limited resources in the face of growing operational complexity.

Why the Status Quo Is No Longer Sufficient

Relying on static inspection intervals, every three to six years, for example, no longer aligns with the pace of change. Grid components designed decades ago are experiencing stressors they were not built to withstand. Climate change, more frequent storms, and increasing electrical loads have accelerated failure rates in critical infrastructure.

At the same time, the consequences of equipment failure are becoming more severe. Transformers, poles, and other components may take more than a year to replace. Failures that once might have been contained now carry the risk of large-scale outages, wildfires, or public safety incidents.

In California alone, powerline-ignited wildfires have been responsible for tens of thousands of fires in recent decades. Some utilities have faced multi-million-dollar settlements for their role in fire ignition, including a $117 million agreement tied to fires in 2017 and 2018. Preventing these outcomes requires earlier detection and better-informed decision-making.

Better Data Enables Better Decisions

Inspection methods have advanced considerably. Aerial imagery, drone-based capture, IoT telemetry, thermal sensing, and AI-enabled analysis now allow for more detailed, frequent, and actionable insights. Just as important, inspection data can be organized and integrated in ways that connect directly to asset records and maintenance systems.

Rather than treating each image or data point as a standalone artifact, structure-based inspection systems enable teams to:

• Tie images and annotations directly to asset IDs and locations
• Map inspection results in GIS platforms to visualize issues spatially
• Track condition changes over time, flagging trends across assets or regions

This integrated approach improves not only detection but also triage and planning. Maintenance teams can prioritize work based on actual risk, not just the calendar. Planners can use condition data to support upgrade decisions or budget justifications. Executives can better quantify the impact of inspections on outage reduction and reliability metrics.

Real-World Applications and Impact

Across the industry, inspection data is already influencing how utilities respond to emerging challenges.

After Hurricane Harvey, for example, one Texas utility deployed drones to assess flood-damaged assets. AI-powered analysis of aerial imagery helped crews identify the most impacted structures and safely route repair teams around impassable roads. This enabled faster restoration and reduced exposure for field crews.

Substations are another high-risk area where inspections have historically been manual and infrequent. New systems now allow for 24/7 monitoring of these facilities using fixed visual and thermal sensors, helping detect arc flashes, overheating, or unauthorized access. In 2022, physical attacks on two substations in North Carolina caused widespread outages and a fatality when a home oxygen machine failed during the power cut. Continuous monitoring can help identify and respond to threats before they escalate.

More broadly, asset managers are using inspection data to inform infrastructure planning. As utilities prepare for electric vehicle load, distributed energy integration, and aging infrastructure upgrades, identifying weak points or underperforming equipment is essential. Inspection insights support not just maintenance but long-term grid readiness.

A Call for Strategic Investment

The question facing many utilities is not whether inspections matter, it is whether current inspection programs are producing the data needed to make high-quality decisions. Without modernized workflows and integration into asset management systems, inspection data remains underutilized.

Investing in inspection modernization means improving the quality, frequency, and usability of asset condition data. That translates to:

• Fewer emergency repairs and forced outages
• Reduced field crew risk
• More targeted capital investment decisions
• Greater resilience in the face of environmental stress

Utilities should also consider how inspection data can support regulatory reporting and public accountability. In regions where regulators are focused on outage metrics or wildfire prevention, inspection insights offer a defensible and data-backed foundation for planning and investment decisions.

From Afterthought to Foundation

Inspections are no longer simply about checking the status of field equipment. They are a gateway to data-driven asset management that can reduce risk, extend asset life, and improve service delivery.

To meet current and future demands, utilities must treat inspections not as a compliance task but as a core strategic input. Structured, timely, and integrated inspection data empowers teams at every level, from field technicians to asset planners, to act earlier and more effectively.

As infrastructure faces new pressures, the ability to detect and respond to asset risks before they escalate will increasingly define utility performance. That begins with a shift in how inspections are valued, executed, and applied. Inspection data is no longer just information. It is infrastructure intelligence.