”Utilities see potential in drones to inspect lines, towers”

The caption says it all. Public utilities, commercial and DoD operators have all identified a need for “drones”. Unfortunately, aside from granted exemptions (333) and Certificates of Authorizations (COAs) the lack of clear regulations allowing for UAS integration in the NAS, only leaves those wishing to do so with “seeing a potential” to conduct those operations.

The captioned article published in The Press Enterprise was written by Mary Esch (2015), wherein she introduced the often dangerous work of inspecting power lines and transmission towers by lineman and the potential benefits of using remote controlled drones to mitigate those dangers. However, strict regulatory restrictions defining commercial operations have strained the ability of Utilities wishing to take advantage of such technology.

Utilities spend millions of dollars inspecting power lines, often in hard to reach places using manned vehicles. The remote controlled systems are equipped with cameras and additional sensors that enable the inspectors to inspect wind turbines, utility poles, power lines and transformers all from the safe confines of terra-firma. These inspections are conducted at a fraction of the cost of the manned operations.

Andrew Bordine, a Consumers Energy executive stated, “With wind turbines, you’ll have a couple of guys hanging off blades by a rope a couple hundred feet in the air to do inspections visually, at a cost upwards of $10,000 per site. We can get the same results with a UAV for $300, without putting workers in danger.”

Navigant (2016) presented in part, the following market assessment:

“By the beginning of 2015, there were nearly 270,000 individual wind turbines operating globally. The more than 800,000 blades spinning on these turbines are battered by the elements over time and gradually wear out. Deterioration can cause reduced energy production in early stages and catastrophic and costly blade collapse if left unnoticed. This is driving a brisk business in wind turbine blade inspections, a role that has traditionally been accomplished from the ground with simple visual inspections or more complicated and risky rope or platform access. A new approach using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, is rapidly muscling in as a middle option.”

Doing the math is the easy part, publishing an acceptable regulation to allow for these operations has potentially been more difficult than imagined.

References

Esch, M., (2015, November 23) Utilities see potential in drones to inspect lines, towers, clipping from The Press Enterprise, Moreno Valley, CA. Copy in possession of R Winn.

Navigant Research (2016) Drones for Wind Turbine Inspection Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Inspection Services for Wind Turbines: Global Market Assessment and Forecasts, Retrieved from https://www.navigantresearch.com/research/drones-for-wind-turbine-inspection