PG&E Innovative Program that Aids Wildfire Risk Inspection Efforts Earns CIO 100 Award

‘Sherlock’ Supports Effort to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in High Fire-Threat Areas

PG&E has earned a CIO 100 Award for an innovative technology solution, named “Sherlock,” that its IT team developed to assist and enhance the company’s wildfire safety inspection efforts.

Each year, CIO recognizes 100 organizations nationally for their achievements in technology innovation. These prestigious awards represent the highest levels of inspiring leadership and success in the IT field. This year’s award recipients were announced today (March 9).

PG&E IT employees who work on the Sherlock Suite of programs that earned a CIO 100 Award for innovation. The in-house developed technology solution supports efforts to mitigate wildfire risk in high fire-threat areas.

Following the devastating Camp Fire in 2018, PG&E captured more than 2 million images of its electric equipment in high fire-threat areas using drones and helicopters, part of an enhanced safety inspection effort. Sherlock was developed to help analyze this growing library of images.

Sherlock is a suite of products built at PG&E that allows desktop inspectors to efficiently view and mark potential equipment problems on high-resolution images. It uses these mark-ups to train artificial intelligence algorithms which in turn are used to make the inspection process more efficient and effective. It also adds metadata throughout the process to allow intuitive searchability of the images across the enterprise.

“Our team was able to create a solution that further enhances PG&E’s comprehensive efforts to reduce the risk of wildfire in our communities,” said PG&E’s Kathy Kay, senior vice president and chief information officer. “The creation of Sherlock is just one example of the creative and innovative minds within our company. It’s wonderful to see this team recognized with such a prestigious award.”

“Today’s most successful companies are using IT to deliver business value, whether by enabling growth, optimizing business processes, or improving relationships with customers,” said Adam Dennison, senior vice president and general manager, IDG events and publisher, CIO. “We are honored to showcase the technology innovation shown by this year’s CIO 100 winners and look forward to celebrating their accomplishments at the CIO 100 Symposium & Awards Ceremony in August.”

Sherlock was especially important when in 2019, PG&E launched its Wildfire Safety Inspection Program (WSIP). That initiative was an accelerated safety-inspection program designed to evaluate every PG&E electric overhead asset in Tier 2 and Tier 3 areas on the California Public Utilities Commission’s high fire-threat district map to further reduce fire risk. Through WSIP, PG&E conducted ground, climbing and/or aerial inspections of nearly 50,000 transmission structures, 700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations, as well as more than 5,500 miles of transmission line and 25,200 miles of distribution line. PG&E fixed all critical safety issues that were found through WSIP and is scheduling work for other issues identified. The new technology initiatives used in WSIP, like Sherlock, are now being incorporated into its ongoing System Inspections Program.

For more about PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, visit www.pge.com/cwsp.

Email Currents at Currents@pge.com.