PG&E Launches Three-Week Drone Inspection of Fresno County Power Grid
PG&E drone teams are flying over Fresno County neighborhoods for three weeks during daylight hours, photographing poles, power lines, and transformers for grid safety inspections.
Drones are already in the skies above Fresno County, and PG&E wants residents to know why.
PG&E is flying drones throughout Fresno County as part of planned inspection work to keep the electric grid safe. Drone teams will be operating during daylight hours over the next three weeks to capture photos of utility equipment, including poles, power lines, and transformers, for inspection crews.
PG&E says the inspections are vital to maintaining the safety of the electric grid. The effort spans communities across the county, with surveyed areas including Auberry, Clovis, Dunlap, Firebaugh, Fresno, Mendota, Miramonte, Prather, Sanger, Tollhouse, and Squaw Valley.
Privacy is a central part of PG&E's public messaging around the flights. The drones are only capturing photos of PG&E equipment, not people or private property. The drones can capture images with precision sufficient to reveal minute defects, such as worn bolts or corroded insulators, enabling proactive maintenance.
Anyone who sees or hears a drone and has questions should look for the pilot, who will be wearing a reflective vest and will be a PG&E employee or an approved PG&E contractor with a PG&E contractor ID. People should wait until the drone has safely landed before approaching the pilot.
The Fresno County inspection is part of a broader, long-running strategy at the utility. PG&E's drone program has been operational since 2015, using autonomous drones equipped with high-resolution cameras, thermal sensors, and LiDAR for detailed inspections of electrical distribution and transmission lines. Distribution equipment in extreme fire-threat areas is inspected every year, while equipment in elevated fire-risk areas is inspected every three years. Fresno County's geography, ranging from the Central Valley floor in Firebaugh and Mendota to the foothills communities of Auberry, Tollhouse, and Miramonte, spans both risk categories.
For more information, PG&E said people can call 1-877-295-4949.
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