Major California Utilities Turn to Cyberhawk for Advanced Wildfire Mitigation Solutions

DENVER – May 1, 2025 – Cyberhawk™, a global leader in drone-based inspections, survey services and visual data management software, is proud to announce its role in supporting two of California's largest utilities with their wildfire mitigation and vegetation management efforts. As part of its comprehensive programs, Cyberhawk's unmanned aerial system (UAS) based asset inspections and iHawk™ data acquisition and visual data management software are helping to safeguard transmission and distribution equipment while enhancing public safety across the state.

In January 2025 alone, California experienced 337 wildfires, burning over 57,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. These events have placed an increased focus on the importance of wildfire mitigation and utilities' role in reducing risk. Cyberhawk works closely with utilities to address these critical concerns using advanced drone technology and its iHawk enterprise-grade, SaaS cloud-based inspection and asset management platform.

Through these efforts, Cyberhawk supports utilities surveying nearly 200,000 miles of distribution lines and more than 30,000 miles of transmission lines over 120,000 square miles of territory across California's diverse terrain. The company's UAS program and visual data management software provides real-time, high-precision, actionable data at scale, empowering utilities to meet California's stringent General Order 95 (GO 95) and General Order 165 (GO 165) requirements for vegetation management and asset inspections.

"California utilities face increasingly complex challenges when it comes to wildfire mitigation and vegetation management," explained Matt Zafuto, Chief Commercial Officer for Cyberhawk. "Our drone inspections and cutting-edge data management platform, iHawk, are helping them avoid these difficulties by providing a more accurate, efficient, and scalable solution. With over 500,000 successful inspections already conducted globally, our technology is making a tangible impact on improving infrastructure resilience and ensuring public safety."

Utilizing Cyberhawk's vast expertise, these California utilities are helping safeguard more than 31 million end-user customers which is more than 3 million higher than the total population of all the Nordic countries combined. This partnership underscores Cyberhawk's ability to quickly scale its services and deliver industry-leading solutions, transforming how utilities manage their infrastructure and mitigate wildfire risk. For one California utility, Cyberhawk successfully scaled the inspection of 3,000 transmission structures to 29,000 per year in just 24 months.

Cyberhawk's UAS-based services can replace or supplement traditional inspection methods like ground patrol, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, offering more precise data in areas that may be difficult or dangerous to reach by other means.

"Today's sophisticated drones are equipped with high-resolution cameras, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors, and thermal cameras. Combined with iHawk's AI-enabled visual data management software, these data capture capabilities allow our utility customers to proactively and safely identify maintenance requirements and potential vegetation encroachment. This strategic approach greatly enhances the ability to detect and quickly respond to wildfire risks while improving coordination speed between utility departments, fire agencies, and regulatory bodies," noted Chris Fleming, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberhawk.

Key Benefits of Cyberhawk's UAS Inspections and Wildfire Mitigation Services:

• One California utility has achieved $180 million in savings with its UAS programs. The UAS inspections revealed that thousands of their poles were in good condition which enabled them to optimize their capital allocation and save tens of millions of dollars in OpEx.

• One utility's vegetation management team reduced costs by 25 percent by eliminating unnecessary truck rolls. With Cyberhawk's accurate and comprehensive inspections, the utility pinpointed sites that required no maintenance, enabling resources to be quickly redirected to higher-priority areas. This approach saved thousands of truck rolls and OpEx.

• Cyberhawk employs world-class pilots with 500,000-plus inspections completed and supported by a team of skilled operations professionals.

• iHawk's image inspection module delivers advanced capabilities and leverages AI to enable the instant analysis of drone-captured asset data, significantly streamlining the inspection process. Integrating geo-visual intelligence, drone data, and satellite imagery enhances real-time asset monitoring by providing situational awareness, predictive maintenance, and lifecycle management tools – saving valuable time and costs.

Cyberhawk continues to lead the way in UAS program development, providing organizations with the expertise and tools needed to maximize the potential of drone technology and visual data management software solutions to increase efficiency, decrease costs and enhance safety to the communities they serve.

To learn more about Cyberhawk's innovative services, visit our Utilities page or follow our LinkedIn.