Just as the sun started to set over Southern California Edison’s training facility in Chino, six troublemen walked into the yard with drones in hand, ready to practice flying at night.

“This helps us a lot,” said Gregory Davis, an SCE troubleman who works in the Ontario area. “Having these drones and the ability to fly them at night allows us to do our circuit patrols a lot more quickly, so we can get the lights back on for customers sooner.”

If there is an outage — whether it is a Public Safety Power Shutoff or otherwise — crews must physically inspect the lines to make sure there are no issues. They are usually looking for something stuck in the lines that could potentially create a spark if the power is turned back on. Until recently, those patrols could not happen without daylight.

Now, as more SCE lineworkers get their Unmanned Aerial System license and complete nighttime drone training, that limitation is becoming a thing of the past.

“I’ve worked at Edison for 40 years, been a drone pilot for the last five, but the Federal Aviation Administration only recently allowed utilities to begin night flying,” said Davis. “Since then, we have been getting the proper safety training so that we are ready to operate these aircraft in the dark.”

The biggest learning curve is adjusting their eyes to the darkness and navigating the difference in depth perception.

To better understand the nuances, the training combines classroom curriculum with outdoor practice, where the pilots are tasked with perfecting takeoff, maneuvering through equipment, capturing photos and video of the lines, then landing.

“After about two and a half hours of in-classroom work, we took it outside to learn about the actual physiology of our brains, eyes and how we can see and perceive things at night,” said Chad Phol, an SCE advisor who is leading the training. “We have the trainees fly when there was still some light out, at sunset and then when it is completely dark, so they get a sense of how their eyes will adjust.”

So far, 26 troublemen, linemen, patrolmen, inspections team members and technicians across 16 districts have volunteered to go through the nighttime drone training program and are fully qualified to pilot a drone after dark.

SCE’s Air Operations Team has since launched an additional training, Beyond Visual Line of Sight, which allows the pilots to fly a drone farther than what their eyes can see — helping them patrol equipment in hard-to-reach areas.

“I am excited about what these trainings allow us to do,” said Davis. “As troublemen, our goal is to restore power. That is what we are here to do, and now with the new drone capabilities, we are able to do that a lot faster and get our customers’ power back on sooner.”

For more information, visit sce.com/psps.

Communications for this program are funded by ratepayers.