Key results
The company
Exelon
exeloncorp.comEnergy utility holding company for electric and gas distribution services.
Result highlights
- Drone inspection time cut from 1 hour to 30 secs
- >100x efficiency increase for asset inspection
- Defect sorting time cut from weeks to seconds
The story
One of the largest energy companies in the United States, serving over 10 million customers and maintaining grid infrastructure across vast territories.
Traditional inspections required pilots to fly drones manually, followed by weeks of human analysis to sort through thousands of photos for defects. This disconnected workflow delayed critical repairs and exposed field workers to unnecessary safety risks.
The utility deployed autonomous drones equipped with NVIDIA Jetson modules to process visual data locally at the edge rather than in the cloud. Onboard AI models identify assets and defects in real time while automatically correcting GIS location data during flight. Field teams receive prioritized inspection reports immediately on tablets, enabling instant maintenance decisions instead of waiting weeks for manual review.
Quotes
“At Exelon, we’re proud to support BGE’s leadership in pioneering this groundbreaking work. By combining autonomous drone technology with AI from Deloitte and NVIDIA, we’re transforming how we inspect and maintain our grid—making it faster, more accurate, and ultimately safer for our field teams and more reliable for our customers.”
Implementation partner
Deloitte
deloitte.comCollaborated with Exelon to develop and deploy OptoAI, an AI platform for real-time asset inspection.