Virtual Reality Goes Electric

Utility PG&E thinks VR technology may make inspecting equipment faster and safer.

- Jonathan Vanian

For an electric utility, a technical glitch could trigger a huge blackout, plunging entire cities into darkness.Typically such an event would require utility workers to scramble to a faraway substation. But what if they instead strap on virtual-reality headsets and walk through a model of the facility to troubleshoot?

Could technology once seen only in sci-fi films help a utility company save precious minutes diagnosing a critical problem?

This is the future as envisioned by California utility PG&E, which is working on virtual-reality technology with data-crunching startup Space-Time Insight. PG&E says virtual reality could provide a quicker and safer way for workers to inspect equipment without the risk of getting zapped.