Hawaiian Electric has contracted UK-based Cyberhawk to fly drone inspections over its transmission network on Hawaii Island, Maui County and Oahu, aiming to detect damaged equipment before it can ignite wildfires.

The deal, announced last month, sends drones equipped for long-range inspection across the utility's assets in identified wildfire risk areas. Hawaiian Electric, the state's largest electric utility, said the aerial inspections will let it identify problems faster and prevent or reduce fire risk.

Anna Dillé, Cyberhawk's vice president of North American operations, said in an interview: "We are using drones to capture high-resolution imagery of all of their electrical assets across the islands making sure that there's not any critical failures or defects that could potentially cause a wildfire."

What hardware is flying the inspections?

Cyberhawk is deploying Skydio X10 drones fitted with a VT300Z sensor package built for long-range work. The sensor delivers 48-megapixel resolution with lossless zoom up to 16 times, allowing inspectors to see damage on structures in detail. Dillé said the equipment lets crews "get in quite close, quite detailed, and get the best data and imagery that we can."

The imagery is designed to catch problems such as damaged or worn-out insulators and collar keys, so the utility can repair them before further damage occurs. Dillé noted that aging infrastructure means defects are being found — and that repeat customers are already seeing defect rates fall because issues get flagged and fixed quickly.

Why now?

The contract lands amid unusually dry atmospheric conditions across the island chain. On November 7, Hawaiian Electric issued a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) notice covering the leeward side of Oahu, after previously placing Hawaii Island and Maui County under a PSPS watch. A PSPS signals enhanced monitoring in the highest-risk areas and warns that the company might cut power to reduce the threat of a fire.

For Cyberhawk, the Hawaiian Electric contract extends a nearly 15-year record in utility inspection. Founded in the UK in 2008 and now a subsidiary of Ondas, the company began operating in the United States in 2021.

"So, it's pretty new for us on the U.S. side of things. But we've had great success over here," Dillé said. The company performs more than 400,000 inspections of electric utility assets — transmission lines, distribution lines and substations — every year, an average of well over 1,000 per day.

Dillé said mainland utilities also face conductor problems: the lines running between towers can fray, and there is an active push to capture imagery of those assets as well.

How does an inspection run?

Crews receive a daily work pack each morning mapping the assets assigned for inspection. Cyberhawk supplies each pilot with a drone for the designated route, and pilots report through an application whether they successfully captured data for each structure. Analysts then process the data to set the following day's workflow.

On Hawaii Island, Cyberhawk crews work alongside Hawaiian Electric's own staff. All personnel must drive Hawaiian Electric- or contractor-marked vehicles, and any operator on foot must wear a Cyberhawk-branded hard hat and vest.

Inspections began in mid-October and run through December in parts of Downtown Hilo, North Hilo, Lower Puna, North Kona, North Kohala and along Saddle Road. Personnel will not enter homes or businesses, though operators may need to access private property to reach a utility pole.

Where else does Cyberhawk operate?

Cyberhawk ranks among the largest drone-centric infrastructure asset service providers in the world, operating in more than 40 countries. CEO Chris Fleming, a former rope access-trained inspector on North Sea oil platforms, co-founded the company in 2008 to use drones for industrial inspections without putting people in hazardous environments.

The company continues to serve oil and gas clients, conducting offshore flare inspections and 3D modeling work for oil rigs. Dillé said digital twins of rig assets let companies "see what's going on the rig at any point in time." Cyberhawk drones also patrol pipeline rights-of-way, looking for excavation or other anomalies that could threaten a pipeline.

Dillé said the company is looking to expand further in Europe: "We're really looking into how we can branch into the European market a little bit more and start to offer these services at a wider level."

Hawaii's grid now sits under camera lenses that can read a cracked insulator from a distance.