2027 Event Agenda

During outage events, customers often have valuable real-time information about field conditions, yet utilities have traditionally relied on phone calls and manually reviewed reports to understand what is happening on the ground. This session explores how Alectra Utilities is using computer vision to strengthen customer engagement by giving customers a more active role in outage response through AI-powered image reporting. Through Alectra’s outage reporting channels, customers can submit photos of field conditions, transforming outage reporting from a one-way interaction into a more participatory experience. Rather than remaining isolated customer service interactions, submitted images become part of the utility’s broader damage assessment picture, helping utilities better understand outage impacts across the service territory. Using computer vision and AI-enabled image analysis, customer-submitted images are automatically triaged, categorized, and visualized for internal response teams. The solution helps identify likely issue types, flag potential public safety concerns, and provide operations teams with a geographic view of damage conditions through an interactive visual interface. This enables control room operators, restoration teams, and field crews to gain earlier visibility into hazards, damaged infrastructure, vegetation issues, and outage-related impacts before crews arrive on site. The session will highlight the evolution from traditional manual third-party triage to near real-time AI-assisted visualization, demonstrating how customer-provided information can become directly useful to utility operations. Attendees will also explore the future potential of expanding visibility through additional image sources, including publicly available social media content during major storm and outage events. This utility-led session offers practical insights into how utilities can deepen customer engagement, improve customer experience, and strengthen operational awareness by turning customer participation into faster, smarter, and more informed utility response.