While drones are often associated with concerts, entertainment or sporting events, AEP Ohio has been harnessing their potential since 2021 to improve electric service reliability for our customers. The integration of drone technology has transformed our operations and increased efficiency and safety while providing high-quality data that guides maintenance and repair decisions.
Addressing safety and privacy concerns
AEP Ohio follows all Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines and regulations. We use drones to inspect our equipment within our right-of-way, nothing else. Using drones has reduced the need for field personnel to work at heights, minimizing the risk of accidents and injuries, and allows coverage of a large area — especially in challenging terrain — in a shorter amount of time than crews and large machinery often can.
Early drone use
AEP Ohio initially rolled out drones for damage assessment following storms. Our two FAA-certified drone pilots flew the devices across our footprint, inspecting damage to poles, wires and other critical equipment. Equipped with high-resolution cameras, they fly above areas of difficult terrain that would have taken hours to inspect on foot. The drones captured detailed images and data that helped our crews pinpoint where to respond so they could restore power safely and as quickly as possible. The results were remarkable. By 2023, AEP Ohio expanded drone usage to include reliability assessments that were driven by smart grid data, allowing us to identify and address emerging reliability issues.
In 2024, AEP Ohio began using drones at night to assess damage to our equipment — a potential game-changing enhancement for getting customers’ power back on faster. Nighttime drone flights also avoid the safety hazards that workers face when navigating challenging terrain in the dark.
Drones also have played a crucial role in supporting AEP Ohio’s Center for Customer Reliability (CCR). This team continuously monitors smart grid data and can deploy drones to specific areas as needed. The drones’ thermal imaging technology helps the team detect equipment and connection issues before they lead to outages.
Drones now
AEP Ohio’s drone team has grown to eight pilots who have conducted almost 6,500 flights to date. As of August 2025, the team had successfully identified 307 issues on our equipment, allowing repairs to be completed proactively before outages occurred. Here’s a snapshot of the work done so far in 2025:
- 51,000 poles inspected
- 6,037 miles flown
- 81 circuits inspected
In July 2025, we installed our first permanent drone docking station, known as a drone in a box, at a Columbus substation. With just a click of a button from AEP Ohio’s Gahanna headquarters, our team can put a drone in the air, get a 360-degree view of our equipment and allow for quicker, safer and more detailed inspections than the traditional boots-on-the-ground method. This drone allows our team to quickly inspect and monitor equipment along the 16 power lines serving over 43,000 customers in the Linden and Clintonville communities. Our innovative use of this technology was featured on NBC4 and ABC6 in Columbus this summer.
Drones in the future
The combination of advanced technology and data analysis has allowed AEP Ohio to prevent and shorten outages; improve operational efficiency; and keep our crews safe.
Looking ahead, we plan to expand our drone program significantly with:
- Ten drone docking stations to be installed by the end of October 2025.
- Eight new drone pilots joining AEP Ohio in the fall of 2025.
Embracing the power of drone technology is another way AEP Ohio is supporting our goal of providing our customers with safe, reliable and affordable electric service.