SRP

SRP has installed “SmokeD” AI-enabled wildfire detection cameras on transmission towers. The cameras can detect smoke up to 10 miles away.

The Salt River Project is testing out an AI program to minimize the spread of wildfires. It detects smoke up to 10 miles away, sends an alert to first responders and directs them exactly where to find it within minutes.

The system is already active and mounted on roughly a dozen transmission towers in the Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests.

Floyd Hardin with SRP said they’re asking the Department of Energy to fund more installations.

“Another 35, potentially, cameras, detectors to go on other infrastructure because we can already see where the benefit would lie,” Hardin said.

Hardin said the system, which also works at night, has already detected the starts of multiple wildfires.