WE PROVIDE:

  • Powerline Inspection
  • Power Plant Inspection
  • LiDAR-based inspection for vegetation management
  • Thermal Inspection of Powerline and Sub-stations
  • Corridor Mapping
  • Analysis of safety corridor – to minimize fire risk from overgrown vegetation and fallen trees.
  • Powerline 2D / 3D Mapping & Model
  • Damage Monitoring/ Inventory – often following a storm or fire damage.
  • Scheduled Digital Reporting – to track defect trends.

POWER AND DISTRIBUTION OVERVIEW

Electricity is the foundation of modern social development. Timely and effective powerline inspection is very important to ensure grid security. 

Inspecting power lines is a dangerous, time-consuming and expensive undertaking. But it’s necessary to keep a power system operating effectively and to avoid calamities such as fires that may occur from vegetation encroaching on the lines.

EARLY ADAPTATION

At DRIFT UAV Services we have adopted the use of Drone Technology to support energy and utility companies. We can easily conduct Infrared equipment inspection of power lines safely, and efficiently while capturing data accurately.

Regular powerline inspections and timely maintenance are crucial to keeping costs down and restoring electricity quickly. Most power grid operators today rely on-ground staff and low-flying helicopters to inspect their power lines — both of which can be expensive, time-consuming, and dependent on optimal weather conditions.

Our safe and reliable drone inspection services for utility assets include inspection of transmission and distribution power lines, substations, and generation facilities. Our services provide insights to assess the condition of utility assets, including conductors, insulators, hardware, poles, and towers.

OUR SOLUTION:

Using our Drone mapping services for powerline inspection we provide the tools and platform to capture high-resolution aerial views of a power distribution system safely and easily. Back in the office, or out in the field, we analyze details, annotate images, make measurements, share reports and images to help you make quicker and more informed decisions.

We offer utility companies the ability to confidently assess critical assets used in the transmission and distribution of electricity, allowing them to focus their time and resources directly where they are needed.

This greatly reduces evaluation time, frees up resources for other tasks and enhances business efficiency and productivity.

HOW WE DO IT:

Using our specialized Industrial drone equipped with a Zoom camera, Thermal camera, and Lidar Sensor we can capture ultra-fine details of powerlines and tower equipment such as insulator, spacer, cable, and another object to understand the situation in detail.

The insulator can also be inspected using the fully autonomous flight to obtain very clear pictures for the AI to review & the inspector to provide an assessment.

WHAT ARE WE ABLE TO IDENTIFY:

Our Aerial Inspections look for physical damage to the asset, such as:

  • Deterioration to timber components (rot),
  • Corridor inspection to detect unauthorized objects or vegetation in secured territory,
  • Rust or corrosion to metal components,
  • Collapsed insulators,
  • Overheating insulators,
  • Overheating wires,
  • Parts missing from the tower,
  • Loose bolts,
  • Broken strands,
  • Abrasion,
  • Lightning damage,
  • Slack lines,
  • Loss of fixtures, etc.

HOT SPOT DETECTION

Utilizing infrared cameras allows us to quickly identify any hot spots easily. We can provide advanced warning of components that may be about to fail in the near future.

VEGETATION MANAGEMENT

Mapping is used to model the surrounding vegetation. Using LiDAR point clouds and 3D mapping allows grid operators to measure the distance between the foliage, different vegetation, and power lines. This in turn allows them to make well-informed decisions and predict the areas that will become problematic in the future.

Instead of doing large-scale clearing operations, with our assistance, the grid operators can focus on the areas that pose the largest threat to the stability of their power line network.

POWERLINE INSPECTION BENEFITS:

  • Faster and more accurate data collection for identifying and mitigating risks in power distribution
  • Drastically reduced man hours and costs through automating inspections, saving 30 – 50% of the overall cost and time
  • Ability to safely assess the condition and orientation of the powerline without a need for workers to ascend to great heights
  • Increased data accuracy and reliability with real-time images, video feed, and zoom/thermal/4k capabilities
  • Use of Thermal and LIDAR to aid in inspecting and monitoring the corridor for power lines and towers
  • Higher-resolution visual inspections compared to ground-based inspections
  • Reduced downtime during inspection – towers can remain functional during inspection
  • Automated and repeatable inspection tasks to observe change over time
  • Detailed Data Capture Over Time (Historical Data Capture) – Keeping records of previous inspections is useful for figuring out the causes behind faults, it is essential to keep track of previous issues to prevent them from becoming major failures and from reoccurring.

OUR SAFETY ASSURANCE

As a safety-conscious service provider, we start every project with a detailed scope and risk assessment to understand what exactly our service team will inspect.