CASE STUDY

USING SATELLITE IMAGERY TO IDENTIFY 37

DIFFERENT SPECIES OF VEGETATION AND
REDUCE RISK
Prepared by:

Anniek Schouten,Chief Operating Officer, Overstory

Iago Veiras Lens, Artificial Intelligence Partner, Elewit, Red Eléctrica Group
Jose Manuel Avila Ollero,High Voltage Line Maintenance Engineer, Red Eléctrica de
España

*Dow Jones Sustainability Index

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OVERVIEW
Vegetation management is one of the most important
ways to ensure safe and reliable transmission and
distribution right-of-way corridors. Utilities across the
globe are moving from a fixed pruning cycle to a risk-
based approach to reduce risk and optimize spend.
Electrical and environmental regulations are an
important consideration for each utility when
implementing a risk-based pruning approach, and
these regulations differ by country and by state. For
the Spanish transmission system operator (TSO) Red
Eléctrica de España (REE), knowing the vegetation
species is key for managing risk and compliance.

The woodlands and ecosystems on the Iberian

Peninsula and nearby islands are highly diverse in
vegetation types and growth rates. This posed a
challenge for REE in creating an up-to-date view of
the species that grow next to their power lines. REE
has been working together with the satellite and
artificial intelligence company Overstory to monitor
37 different tree species, shrub species and grass
classes over 10,000 miles near their transmission
right-of-way.

“In selecting a partner for species

identification, we were looking for proven
experience with solving this challenge with
other customers with high precision, extensive
technical abilities and alignment on approach,
planning and affordability. We found this in our
partner Overstory.” - Iago Veiras Lens,
Artificial Intelligence Partner at Elewit
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The goal of the collaboration has been to
provide a detailed and efficient vegetation map
that can be used by applications and algorithms
developed internally by REE to carry out
vegetation management based on:
1. A risk-based approach to pruning and
cutting.
2. A budget optimization that increases the
impact of every euro spent by ensuring a
focus on the riskiest areas.
3. Compliance with the electrical and
environmental regulations in each area of
Spain.
REE is one of the first electric utilities to
implement this detailed vegetation species
intelligence into their operations. Jose Manuel
Avila Ollero, High Voltage Line Maintenance
Engineer at REE, on the importance of detailed
vegetation species mapping to the operations
of the business: “Detailed vegetation
intelligence allows REE to have actual,
updated information on the level of risk in
each area and to dedicate our budget more
intensively in the areas with the highest level
of risk.”

Size of Spain is 195,000 square miles

Net revenue of over 2 Billion Euro (2019)

27,300 miles of high voltage circuits

Presence in the Dow Jones Sustainability

World Index 2020: 89/100

Image: Facts and figures about REE. With an area of over 195,000 square miles, the
territory of Spain is larger than the state of California (164,000 square miles)
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MULTIDISCIPLINARY
COLLABORATION
REE is the sole TSO of the Spanish electricity
system. It is responsible for operating and
maintaining more than 27,340 miles (44,000
km) of high voltage circuits that connect over
6,000 high voltage substation bays. REE
created a multidisciplinary team and selected
Overstory as its technology partner. Overstory
is a Europe- and US-based company that
provides vegetation management intelligence at
scale, by combining satellite data and machine
learning.

Iago Veiras Lens is the Artificial Intelligence

Partner at Elewit, the technology platform of the
Red Eléctrica Group. Veiras Lens comments, “In
selecting a partner for species identification,
we were looking for proven experience with
solving this challenge with other customers
with high precision, extensive technical
abilities and alignment on approach, planning
and affordability. We found this in our partner
Overstory.”
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KNOWING THE TREE

SPECIES TO
UNDERSTAND RISK
Like many utilities, REE wants to spend its Different types of vegetation pose a different
vegetation management budget in the most threat to the network because each species has
efficient, targeted way possible. Doing so a different growth rate. Species with higher
requires detailed vegetation monitoring. growth rates should be pruned more often and
Knowing the tree and shrub species that grow vice versa.
near their lines is critical for understanding risks
and for prioritizing money and time spent
around those risks.

Risk estimation per span

Vegetation Optimized planning of

intelligence activities

Image: With an area of over 195,000 square miles, the territory of Spain is larger than
the state of California (164,000 square miles).
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In Spain, regulation dictates what types of trees
and shrubs are allowed in the right-of-way. So
species information is critical for ensuring
compliance. The challenge? Being able to map
and distinguish between 37 different vegetation
species, including 20 tree species, 14 shrub
species, 3 grassland classes and 1 class that was
called “no vegetation”. With detailed species
information, REE can understand where the
immediate risks are and where they will be in 4
years.
This was costly to achieve the necessary level of
precision and granularity. Mr. Veiras Lens
elaborates, “The main barrier that prevented
REE from digitally identifying all vegetation
species in the corridors was the high cost of
the previously used method: manual photo
interpretation. The high costs of manual
interpretation made the business case
unbearable, until we discovered Overstory’s
approach based on machine learning and
satellite data.”

In the past it has been a real challenge to
properly label or annotate all the species near
the right-of-way. Other monitoring technologies
such as Lidar have not been able to provide this
information. Before the collaboration with
Overstory, the vegetation had to be mapped
manually.
In addition, mapping the tree species by hand
meant having a snapshot for only one moment in
time. Vegetation changes constantly. Trees such
as Pine and Eucalyptus grow quickly in Spain.
There was a need to frequently monitor species
in a more scalable, cost-effective and quality-
controlled way. Technology that combines
satellite images and machine learning was well
positioned for this challenge.

38 classes in total Network length of 10,000 miles (16,000 km)

20 tree species Corridor width of 492 feet (150 meter)

14 shrub species
3 grassland/crops
1 no vegetation class

Image: The challenge? Distinguishing between 38 different classes, over a terrain of

10,000 miles with a corridor width of 492 feet.
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COMBINING MACHINE
LEARNING AND
SATELLITE DATA
REE is now able to monitor 37 species across all As the project progressed, vegetation
the 13 different climate zones of Spain. In order intelligence was created and validated
to achieve this critical milestone, the following throughout the country. Veiras Lens explains,
key requirements had to be met: “Currently, the vegetation management
experts have validated the accuracy of the
deliverables for all of mainland Spain and the
1. Accuracy: High accuracy was extremely Balearic Islands, and they’ve confirmed that
important for REE because their vegetation the accuracy exceeded our expectations. The
management processes depend on reliable results from Overstory are currently
data. Algorithms had been developed and implemented in the vegetation management
implemented to predict vegetation growth in cycle for 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of
the high voltage corridors, and to prescribe powerline.”
the best actions to mitigate risks to the
electrical assets. As a result, validating the
reliability of the results was key.
2. Agility: Implementing an innovative solution
required an agile approach, and flexibility to
deal with changes.
3. Affordability: A benefit calculation had
been prepared by REE to ensure the
business case was met and the expected
budget efficiencies were realized.

Mr. Veiras Lens from Elewit comments, “At

first, we were skeptical about how the
algorithms would work without any validation
and recommendation from the business team,
but since the first derivable, the results
exceeded the initial expectations. This raised
the expectations within REE about the results
of the implementation.”
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Images: Tree species intelligence created by REE and Overstory

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The technology applied in this roll-out consists of REE wanted to operationalize this technology,
multiple components: because of its:

1. High resolution imagery Scalability and speed: very high resolution

2. Machine learning methods, including imagery that is now available across the
convolutional neural networks planet for automatic processing every day
3. Scalable technical pipeline High accuracy: advanced machine learning
4. Transparent validation and quality assurance techniques combined with structured and
5. Visualization transparent quality control
Affordability: less expensive than existing
vegetation monitoring and analysis methods

Image: Satellites take images of the Earth from everywhere on Earth from a distance
of 385 miles from the Earth. This results in images with a resolution as high as 30
centimeters.
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The use of satellite imagery and aerial data is a much more

High resolution scalable solution than field inspection or using drones to take
imagery images. Satellite images can be acquired for any location, from
any location, at any time.

Overstory already had algorithms in place to identify the

location of trees, shrubs, grass and urban elements like roads
and buildings, and to detect certain tree species. In this case, a
Machine learning
dataset about vegetation in Spain from REE was used to train
(including
and fine-tune the algorithms. Overstory’s existing species
convolutional
detection technology, combined with region-specific species
neural networks)
data from REE, resulted in a final product that was able to label
37 different trees, shrubs and grassland species with a high
degree of granularity.

Applying the models throughout Spain was possible because of

a scalable technical pipeline from data acquisition, to pre-
Scalable technical processing, extracting insights, post processing, validation and
pipeline extensive quality assurance. This scalable technical pipeline is
specialized for extracting vegetation intelligence with high
granularity and high accuracy.

Transparent validation and quality assurance was an integral

part of the roll-out. The accuracy of the output was measured
at the country level, but also for each specific province. To
ensure additional expertise on the Spanish landscape, partner
Transparent
TRAGSATEC supported the validation efforts. REE, Overstory
validation and
and TRAGSATEC performed validation on each sub-region
quality assurance
because the vegetation characteristics of each province are
different. The team iterated together to ensure they arrived at
the best possible outcomes, and to make sure all risk and
regulatory considerations were accounted for.

The multidisciplinary team performed additional checks and

validation on the tree species by visualizing the results in the
Overstory platform. This qualitative analysis was performed
Visualization
after the quantitative tests and gave REE additional confidence
in the results. Visualization also made it easy and user-friendly
to take action on the data.
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OPTIMIZING BUDGET
BY A RISK-BASED
PRUNING APPROACH
As a result of the collaboration with Overstory,
REE has a detailed and efficient-to-maintain
vegetation map. The map, which is input to the
applications and algorithms of REE, allows REE to
manage the maintenance of the vegetation,
optimize the budget by focusing pruning in the
areas of greatest risk and guarantee compliance
with regulations in all of Spain.

Mr. Avila Ollero reflects on the process of

implementing the vegetation intelligence
together with their partner, “Together with
Overstory, we had the capacity to adapt to any
changes and challenges in this roll-out.
Overstory works in a very agile and
autonomous way, delivering on-time and with
the precision and quality standards required in
our business.”

A precise and detailed view on the vegetation

provides the opportunity for electric utilities to
reduce risk and optimize budgets. The more
detailed and granular this information is, the
more relevant input it provides for a risk-based
approach to pruning. Monitoring tree species on
and around the right-of-way is valuable input for
estimating current and future risk, and for
compliance with electrical and environmental
regulations.

This article is provided by REE, Elewit and

Overstory. For more information, you can reach
out to the authors and contributors via
anniek@overstory.ai.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Anniek Schouten - COO & Co-founder at Overstory

As Co-founder and COO of Overstory, Anniek Schouten drives business growth and
partnerships at Overstory. Overstory helps utilities direct pruning efforts to areas most at
risk, verify pruning work performed by third parties, support wildfire mitigation plans and
make sure O&M budgets are spent in the most effective way. With a background in business
strategy, Anniek founded Overstory together with machine learning experts Indra den Bakker
(background in mathematics, author of Deep Learning book) and Roelof Pieters (background
in AI and previously founder of an AI company). With a team of machine learning, forestry
and utility professionals, Overstory helps utilities in distribution and transmission to leverage
advancements in deep learning and satellite data for vegetation strategy.

Iago Veiras Lens - Artificial Intelligence Partner at Elewit,Red Eléctrica Group

With a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and background in Data Science, Iago Veiras Lens
has been part of the Red Eléctrica Group for over 5 years. Mr. Veiras lens is Artificial
Intelligence Partner of Elewit, the technology platform of the Red Eléctrica Group. In his role,
Mr. Veiras Lens combines his deep knowledge of data science with the expertise of the
utility landscape to successfully implement innovative solutions.

Jose Manuel Avila Ollero - High Voltage Line Maintenance Engineer at

Red Eléctrica de España
Jose Manuel Avila Ollero has a Master’s degree in Construction and Maintenance of High
Voltage Installations and an MBA from EAE Business School. He has been bringing his
extensive knowledge and expertise to Red Eléctrica de España for over 12 years. Vegetation
Management is one of the core responsibilities of Mr. Avila Ollero.
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ABOUT OVERSTORY
Overstory uses machine learning to interpret satellite imagery and weather data in order to
monitor vegetation on and around transmission and distribution corridors. With up-to-date
insights at the tree level, Overstory helps utilities direct pruning efforts to areas most at
risk, support wildfire mitigation plans and make sure O&M budgets are spent in the most
effective way.

So far, the Overstory AI has been trained and applied on over 2M square miles of forest in
54 countries, including 22,000 miles of T&D right-of-way.

The Overstory Vegetation Intelligence Platform helps utilities to identify:

Tree species
Vegetation encroachment
Pruning verification and remote auditing
Height of trees
Proximity of vegetation to the power lines
Tree vitality and fall-in risks
Prediction of grow-ins, based on species and growth rate
Risk insights for each span of the network

REACH OUT FOR AN INTRODUCTION OR A DEMO

Email: anniek@overstory.ai
Address: Overstory, Inc. 444 Somerville Ave,
Somerville, MA 02143
Phone number: +1 773.294.4606
www.overstory.ai

*Dow Jones Sustainability Index