AiDash, a leading provider of satellite- and AI-powered operations, maintenance, and sustainability platforms, today announced its Disaster and Disruption Management System (DDMS). DDMS is a satellite- and AI-powered SaaS offering that helps utility and energy companies as well as governments and cities, manage the impact of natural disasters, including storms and wildfires. The new system works in near real-time before, during, and after a major natural disaster or extreme weather event. AiDash’s other products are used for routine operations and maintenance in core industries, while DDMS is for emergency management at scale.
In 2021 alone, the US experienced 15+ weather/climate disaster events with damages exceeding $1 billion. Satellite technology has reached maturity as a viable tool with over 1,000 satellites launched every year, employing various electromagnetic bands, including multispectral bands and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) bands. Combined with carefully prepared AI, this technology now makes it possible to predict damage from extreme events to allow preparation and resource placement, evaluate the damage to understand what restoration is needed and which sites are accessible, and actually help plan the restoration itself. There has been an urgent need for a solution that can predict and prevent damage, and that helps with preparation and restoration so that power delivery is disrupted as little as possible.
DDMS has the power to disrupt the industry with its condition-based and precise disaster management, which promises to save both money and lives. The AI-powered system fuses satellite imagery, real-time weather data, span-level vegetation data, and historic outage and resource usage data for insights before, during, and after a major weather event. It helps organizations forecast the impact of storms and wildfires, predict outages and damage, plan resources and workforce, and even see what sites remain accessible afterward.
For example, before the event, the system will help utilities and cities predict areas where they can expect damage, the likely extent of that damage, how many resources will be required for the event, and how many lives could be impacted. During the event, the system offers ongoing predictions of flooding, damages and accessibility. After the event, precise assessments help utilities and cities plan and perform restoration work, as well as measure and quantify the extent of actual damage using satellite tech and AI. In early deployments, DDMS predicted the severity of storms and their specific impacts with more than 85% accuracy, helping even the most experienced managers respond more quickly and accurately.
“Each storm or wildfire that passes through disrupts our lives and has devastating impacts on our communities,” says Abhishek Singh, co-founder and CEO of AiDash. “With the frequency and severity of extreme storms and wildfires increasing every year, our communities need us to be better prepared for — and faster at — response and disaster management. We’re thrilled to launch DDMS and make an impact on not only the industry, but the world.”
Utilities that are already using AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) can use DDMS for their storm management programs. While DDMS is a mitigation software, a combined effort between industry and government is needed to improve sustainability metrics so the effects of climate change — and its extreme weather events and natural disasters — are under control.
“This is just macroeconomics,” said the manager of one early deployment. “If you can anticipate an event, then you can prevent a lot of the financial effects of equipment destroyed and people impacted. If you can understand where and when an event will hit you, you can focus your efforts and reduce acres of damage. It’s low-hanging fruit.”
