If you would ask me what among all the new technologies on display here and at other events which will likely dramatically reduce the bottom line of utilities in the transmission business I would say unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.* For example, every utility which has transmission lines spends large sums on overflying, typically with very expensive helicopter flights, transmission lines for vegetation management to monitor the trees to preventing them from interfering with transmissions lines.* If instead this could be done with much less expensive UAV flights, the cost reduction would be huge. But right now this is not possible, because commercial operation of UAVs can*is only allowed by the
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) with visual line of sight (VLOS) rules. Vegetation monitoring of transmission lines requires beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) rules.* The potential ROI on UAVs*doing this kind of thing*are expected to be sizable.**
*
Today at
DistribuTECH2016 Eileen Lockhart of*
Xcel Energy with partners
Environmental Consultants Inc and
Flot Systems gave a presentation that showed just how close we are to UAVs operating under BVLOS rules becoming a commercial reality*for electric power utilities.
*
Xcel Energy which has electric and gas assets in eight states is the fourth largest utility in the U.S.* They have partnered with
EEI,
EPRI,
INL and others in the utility sector to show the way in the application of UAVs in the utility sector.** They are working with the FAA to push forward the practical application of UAVs in the utility sector.* Their objectives are improved safety for utility employees and the public, reducing risk to and improving reliability of the grid, and reducing the cost of operating and maintaining grid infrastructure.* The technologies involved include GIS and*geospatial*analytics in addition to the UAVs themselves.* The major expected savings are from getting people out of helicopters and planes and*reducing the time they*have to spend in the field.
*
Xcel*started the project in 2015 with seven UAS proof of concept missions in transmission, gas operations, energy supply, and electricty distribution.
- Transmission line and tower inspections
- Substation facility rating data collection
- Pipeline bridge and river crossings inspections
- High pressure pipeline inspections
- Coal/ash storage inventory (volumetric)
- Wind turbine blade inspections
- Storm damage assessment
Just last week (Feb 3, 2016) Xcel with its partners completed the first*beyond visual line of sight*mission with UAV flights over 20 miles of transmission lines.* It is expected that BVLOS flights will become a commercial reality in the near future with UAV flights not flown by Xcel but by contractors such as Flos operating with FAA licences.* Xcel has not yet calculated the ROI for application using UAVs, but plan to do this soon.
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