On Oct. 16, Skydio CEO Adam Bry posted on X that Dominion Energy had added 100 docked drones. He also said the utility is moving linemen and substation electricians into remote pilot jobs. DroneXL reported the post the same day. Read on its own, it sounds like 100 drone-in-a-box systems went into service across Dominion's territory at once.

Dominion's own account from a few weeks earlier is more limited. At Skydio's Ascend '26 event in September, Matt Rogers, who oversees electric transmission for Dominion, gave the numbers. "We have 18 Docks deployed across our territory right now," he said, according to Skydio's published keynote transcript. "We just agreed to sign a deal with Skydio to deploy 100 more Docks to our infrastructure over the next few years."

So "added 100" most likely describes a contracted rollout over several years, not 100 docks already installed. The difference matters to anyone trying to judge how far utility drone-in-a-box operations have actually spread.

What each source actually says

The public record has three different figures, from different points in time:

  • 23 units in June. DroneXL reports that Dominion's Unmanned Systems Group was running 23 drone-in-a-box units in June.
  • 18 Docks deployed in September. That was Rogers' figure on stage at Ascend '26, given as the count "right now."
  • 100 more Docks "over the next few years." Rogers described this as a deal Dominion had "just agreed to sign." Bry's Oct. 16 post appears to restate it as 100 docked drones "added."

The 23 and 18 figures may not be counted the same way. One may include drone-in-a-box hardware that the other leaves out, or units may have been moved or retired between June and September. The sources don't explain the gap. Neither number comes anywhere near 100. According to DroneXL, Bry's post names no dock model, gives no per-site count and lists no locations. That makes the claim hard to check.

On dates: DroneDJ's coverage of the Ascend product launches was published Sept. 25, and it embeds a Skydio post dated Sept. 23. So Rogers' description of the deal came roughly three weeks before the CEO's post.

What Dominion says the docks are for

The operational case comes from a Dominion film that DroneXL cited, and it focuses on substations. According to the film, checking a substation by docked drone before crews roll out saves 8 to 12 hours per event.

The staffing figures are modest. The film says Dominion has two dedicated pilots today and expects six to eight within two to three years. Rogers presented the remote pilot role as a career option for field crews, calling it "another path for them to grow their career." Even with 100 more docks, the pilot workforce stays in the single digits on the timeline Dominion described. That suggests one remote pilot will oversee many docks rather than a large new flight department. DroneXL draws the same conclusion, writing that the Skydio software does most of the flying and the linemen supervise it.

The film also says Dominion chose the Skydio dock partly because it is US-made. The aircraft shown in the coverage is the Skydio X10. DroneXL notes that SWEPCO, another utility, also flies X10s.

At Ascend, Rogers also described Dominion's territory as having the highest density of data centers, along with government agencies and military bases. That helps explain why a utility would want fast remote inspections of its infrastructure.

The regulatory groundwork

Dominion didn't start remote docked operations this year. According to Skydio's April 2023 blog post, the FAA approved Dominion to fly Skydio dock-based drones to remotely inspect power generation facilities in six states. The approval came under the FAA's BEYOND program, working with Virginia Tech's Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. Skydio says one of the two waivers it announced that month, which included Dominion's, covers dozens of locations across multiple states. It also says the approval followed a 2022 waiver, obtained with Dominion, for operator-launched beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations at dozens of energy facilities across six states.

That approval history makes a larger buildout plausible. Dominion has already been through the waiver process for remote dock operations. But the sources don't say whether the planned 100 docks fall within the current waivers' site lists, so whether new sites need further approvals is unknown.

Part of a bigger Skydio push

The Dominion announcement came out of an event built around autonomous fleet operations. At Ascend '26, DroneDJ reported, Skydio introduced the F10 Lightrunner fixed-wing aircraft, a MegaDock and new software for running autonomous drone fleets. Skydio said AEP, Chevron, Dominion Energy and Southern Company have been early partners in developing the Asset Command platform.

That context helps explain why Skydio is promoting the Dominion deal. A utility customer committing to 100 more docks is strong evidence for Skydio's argument that docks, not handheld flights by field crews, will be how infrastructure operators use drones at scale. That is a fair point to make. But the headline number should be read as a commitment with a multi-year timeline, as Dominion described it, not as fleet size today.

Why It Matters

Dock counts are becoming a common way to measure the drone-in-a-box market, and vendors have an incentive to report the largest figure. In this case, the customer's own public statement separates what's deployed (18 Docks in September, by Rogers' count) from what's contracted (100 more over the next few years). A CEO post that describes the contract as "added" blurs that line, and readers comparing utility programs or vendor traction should know the difference.

The underlying story is still significant. A major US utility with FAA approval for remote BVLOS dock operations at power generation facilities plans to grow its dock footprint several times over. It says each substation event handled this way saves 8 to 12 hours, and it is moving linemen and substation electricians into remote pilot roles. Whether the 100 docks arrive on schedule, and where they go, will show more than any single announcement. Bry's post gives no model, site count or locations, so there's no way yet to check progress against it.

Sources