Aging Infrastructure: The Hidden Risk Beneath Our Feet

More than 60% of North America’s distribution assets are over 30 years old. I’ve walked job sites where poles and transformers long past their design life were still in service - not because utilities don’t care, but because the balancing act between cost and risk is relentless.

At KDM Engineering, we’ve seen how deferred replacements can lead to cascading outages during peak demand or severe weather. But we’ve also seen the power of predictive tools and risk-informed planning. One partner’s targeted pole replacement - backed by lidar inspections - cut fault-induced outages by 11% in two years. We are helping other partners now, achieve similar reductions!

This isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about keeping communities safe and operations efficient. Aging assets don’t have to be liabilities when we use data to guide proactive investments.

What’s your organization doing to get ahead of aging infrastructure risks?

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