Spot the robot dog helping prevent power outages in Jackson

JACKSON, Mich. (WILX) - Dogs can be trained to do many tricks, like sitting, staying and fetching. But preventing a power outage seems a bit far-fetched for a dog.

Consumer's Energy has a robot dog that can do just that.

"So he goes out and he does six missions a day, they're about 20 minutes each, he goes around six different spots of the substation and he looks for any defects," said Chris Laird, Consumer Energy's VP of electric operations.

Spot the Robot Dog has been with Consumer's Energy since 2021. It uses its' 13 cameras, including a thermal camera 'head', to help prevent power outages before they happen. It does this by finding hot spots, or parts of the substation that are hotter than they should be, and alerting employees.

"Anywhere that we see high heat, that's a defect for us that could be an outage for the customer," said Laird. "He sends us back a note in real-time, we send crews out, we make repairs so that customers don't have to experience an outage."

Spot has been programmed specifically for the Blackstone substation in Jackson, so it knows where to go and what to look for. It automatically goes on its missions six times per day but can also be controlled manually by a tablet.

Spot's cameras have found three system defects so far, saving 3,000 people per defect from potential power outages.

"I live in [the] Jackson community, so I'm happy that it kept my power on," said Allison Cooper, an IT product architect with Consumer's Energy.

Spot is an asset for the company, using its tricks to save time on inspections, and prevent outages for the community.

"He's finding an issue before a failure occurs in the system, we can schedule it, have crews come out, make sure that we take care of that, and our folks don't lose power."

Spot can do more than find hot spots; it's able to read gauges and open and close valves. Right now, it isn't programmed to do all that, but these functions could be added if the substation needs it.