How drones are becoming critical infrastructure for utilities

What does the pathway look like from shiny new toy to core operational tool? That’s the trajectory drones have seemingly taken in many utility operations, highlighting that the hype was real and the future is now. On this episode of Power Perspectives, host Matt Chester goes behind the scenes with three members of Skydio's utility team to show why drones have graduated from novelty to mission-critical infrastructure. In this conversation, Christina Park (Senior Director, Energy Strategy), Suchet Bargoti (Director of Inspection and Mapping), and Cooper Linn (Senior Product Manager) walk through real-world utility deployments, the field-driven product choices that mattered, and how autonomy is changing inspection workflows. Skydio’s case studies highlight how drone deployments have moved from proving concepts to operational scale: the shift to “drones as infrastructure,” the importance of engineers riding along on field missions, and the evolution from broad 3D semantic scans to efficient, asset-based inspection workflows that actually save crews time and prevent outages. Thanks to Skydio for sponsoring this episode. Skydio helps utilities move beyond outdated time based maintenance to smarter, safer and more scalable condition-based maintenance. Powered by autonomous remote operated drones, over 280 utilities trust Skydio. Because with real time aerial data and remote inspection, utilities can spot issues early, reduce forced outages and make confident, efficient, cost effective decisions. Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe