PG&E uses helicopter technology to analyze Bay Area power line environments

In recent weeks, Vacaville residents might have seen helicopters flying low around power lines.

The reason? Pacific Gas & Electric is using copters equipped with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to assess the surrounding conditions of power lines to determine if vegetation needs to be cut back.

Megan McFarland, spokeswoman for PG&E, said the LiDAR was “one of the more high-tech tools in our arsenal.”

“It provides an incredible level of detail and accuracy, and it tells us about the condition and location of our equipment relative to nearby vegetation,” she said. “That’s one of the most important things we’re looking at because anything that can create a wildfire risk is what we want to address.”

The copters are piloted by PJ Helicopters, a third generation, family-owned helicopter business based out of Red Bluff that assist PG&E in surveying distribution lines.

“PJ Helicopters is a world leader in the industry for utility fire and construction,” pilot John Meyers said.

Between April and October — wildfire season — PJ Helicopters flies out to power lines in different parts of the state and utilizes a Sharper Shape LiDAR sensor system that uses imaging to capture data on things like branches or other vegetation encroaching on power lines, equipment at risk of failing and potential defects.

Meyers said once a flight crew is done surveying a circuit, they are given an iPad.

“We basically play ‘Pac-Man’ all day and connect all the dots and then we go to the next circuit once we’re finished,” he said.

Meyers said the technology allows the work to be done quicker than it would with a drone.

“We can get hundreds of miles a day versus a drone that can only get very few,” he said.

Between April and the end of October, PJ Helicopters flies out every day between approximately 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. to do the work. It has conducted surveys throughout the state in areas such as Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Fresno and Pismo Beach.

The copter has spent plenty of time in Vacaville lately, taking off out of the Nut Tree Airport. On Monday, it could be seen flying over the Gates Canyon area which was devastated in the LNU Lightning Complex fires in 2020. On Thursday, it departed from the Nut Tree Airport to survey lines in Napa.

“That’s when we make decisions over what might need trimming or what possibly is encroaching upon our clearances,” she said.

Meyers likes that the survey allows him and his crew to travel to different areas and face new challenges.

“Every day’s interesting,” he said.

McFarland said it was a mechanism to keep communities safe.

“It’s an important tool that we have in fighting wildfires because we get such accurate data,” she said.