From Field to System - Instantly. The Future of Drone Data Integration.

May 20th, 2026

Time: 2:00 PM ET | 1:00 PM CT | 11:00 AM PT

Duration: 60 minutes

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Summary

Drone inspections are rapidly transforming how utilities monitor substations and critical field assets—but collecting images is only the first step. The real challenge lies in converting drone-captured data into actionable maintenance decisions quickly, accurately, and without manual bottlenecks.

A featured utility perspective will be shared through the real-world experience of Matt Cooley from People's Electric Cooperative in Oklahoma, where drone inspections of transmission structures have been part of operations for several years. While drone flights significantly improved field visibility, the office process remained labor-intensive—requiring teams to manually review videos, extract still images, and determine the correct structure association for documentation and follow-up actions.

This practical utility experience highlights a challenge many utilities face: collecting excellent field data but struggling to efficiently convert it into usable maintenance records and asset intelligence.

The webinar will then explore how modern asset management platforms can bridge that gap by integrating drone photos, GPS coordinates, thermal imagery, and inspection findings directly into the asset record. Utilities can automatically associate images with the correct assets, generate inspection records, trigger work orders, and identify thermal hotspots before failures occur—reducing manual effort, minimizing human error, and improving decision-making.

Recent workflow improvements have also enabled field crews to tag video observations directly from the drone controller, allowing the correct frames to be identified and linked to the right assets with greater speed and accuracy. This supports one-person inspection crews, improves compliance readiness, and strengthens preventive and predictive maintenance strategies.

Join us to see how utilities are moving beyond drone flights and turning field data into smarter, faster, and more reliable operational decisions.