Bringing automated monitoring to a 4,000-parcel utility land base
Full coverage of 4,000+ parcels with quarterly monitoring — and a 90–95% reduction in core monitoring costs compared to traditional methods.
Talk to our teamThe challenge
A major energy utility manages more than 4,000 parcels across its service territory — corridors, facility buffers, and mitigation properties spread over hundreds of miles. With limited staff, monitoring had become largely reactive, triggered by complaints or incidents. Using traditional monitoring methods, costs could easily reach seven figures per cycle, so most programs limit coverage — leaving large portions of land unmonitored and risk unmanaged. Even with remote imagery, manually checking thousands of sites would consume hundreds of staff hours each quarter.
The program
With Lens, the utility configured a monitoring agent to watch all 4,000 parcels on a quarterly cadence, with clear detection rules for human access, encroachment, and new disturbance. Each cycle, the agent reviews the latest satellite and aerial imagery, flags parcels where change is detected, and delivers a short triage list for staff review instead of thousands of sites to manually scan.
The outcome
High-priority issues are now identified within days of new imagery becoming available, rather than months after a neighbor call. Field crews focus on the 5–15% of parcels showing meaningful change — illegal camps, new access roads, or encroachment — reducing time in the field while improving safety and oversight. What was once a reactive, time-intensive process is now proactive, scalable, and efficient.
Read the full story
Find this case study in the Remote monitoring playbook
Our playbook on remote monitoring for trespass and encroachment goes deeper on the programs profiled here — with the workflows, imagery choices, and reporting cadences our customers use to keep land intact at scale.
Free playbook
Remote monitoring playbook For trespass & encroachmentCould this fit your work?
Tell us about your land and your team. We'll come back with a scoped proposal.