Grid operators have been inspecting their critical infrastructure using proven methods for years, but with a skill shortage in the industry, tightening of budgets and need to get more out of existing infrastructure, grid operators need to evaluate and adopt new strategies, technology and methodologies.
Limitations with current grid inspection methods
Traditional grid inspection methods can demand heavy machinery and a significant workforce on foot patrol or by helicopter. These inspection methods are established and work but are time consuming, manual, labour intensive, dangerous and can be subjective.
The majority of traditional inspection methods tend to be reactive with a find-and-fix approach and most methods are lacking digital documentation and automation within the process. On top of it, these methods are often just focused on capturing data for high priority defects and are prone to human bias and subjectiveness.
How can AI-assisted virtual inspections help grid operators?
AI-assisted virtual grid inspections can support grid operators in addressing some of these challenges and if done right can be an important inspection method in their toolbox. AI-assisted virtual inspections can support grid operators to:
1. Reduce cost and improve safety with less people out in the field, walking the line, climbing structures, or flying helicopters. Virtual inspections can minimize the risk of worker accidents by keeping people out of harm’s way as the asset data can be captured in a safe manner, distanced away from the physical structure using high quality camera technology.
2. Improve consistency and objectivity of inspections with a built-in inspection workflow.
3. Optimize efficiency and productivity of staff by focusing their activities on high value work and letting the AI do the manual and repetitive tasks such as component and defect detection, automating image to asset linking and asset inventory.
4. Potentially identify more defects as the data is collected in the field but the inspection is done remotely, the inspector has more time to view the structure from different perspectives and identify defects of varying priority.
5. Reduce the number of grid incidents and potential outages with higher precision of detecting defects and the ability to identify common vulnerabilities using the image-based digital asset.
6. Improve capital planning by using accurate, objective image-based inspection data that provides insights into the mechanical health of the grid and support your teams to make decisions based on risk of asset and not based on time.
7. Support knowledge retention by digitalizing information on assets and inspection data with an audit trail within inspection software.
8. Reduce OpEx by providing the visual data from virtual inspections (if structured correctly) to wider teams, enabling them to conduct more work from the desk than going out in the field.
9. Get more out of existing infrastructure, new grid infrastructure takes 5 to 15 years to plan, permit and complete. In the meantime, operators must deploy limited OpEX in a targeted way to maintain and inspect the existing grid. Utilities can use the inspection data from virtual inspections that is now digitized and more accurate to support their spending and inspection programs based on risk.
Ready to add visual inspections to your inspection program? Contact us today to start your journey.
Why not watch our webinar on virtual T&D inspections to:
- Learn what virtual inspections are.
- Discover how they fit into utilities’ current processes and how they can be scaled.
- Uncover virtual inspection pitfalls and benefits that can be achieved.
In hindsight of the BNEF – The New Energy Outlook: Grids report, it is apparent that large investments across the grid infrastructure are needed to continue on the net-zero trajectory. According to the report, the power grid will double in size by 2050.
We are arriving at the fifth industrial revolution (impressively, the power grid’s implementation spans back to the second!), and it is defined by data. When being described, this is the time of technological advancements, automation, increased operational efficiency and technical assistance. And it is just in time, as these are required for us to be able to build out, maintain and connect a doubled-sized power grid in less than 30 years. So even if we call it a revolution, this is a gradual change – and lets be honest, we did see it coming.
- BVLOS flying inspected over
in a single day
The new age of powerline inspections.
When working with utilities on their infrastructure inspections, we are constantly being reminded of the immense challenges that modernization, digitalization and huge expansion poses for utilities. And we are not claiming that we can solve all of these challenges on our own, but virtual inspections can support the energy transition and is aligned with the expectations of the new revolution when it is done right.
In a recent study with Xcel Energy, virtual inspections found 60% more defects than foot patrol, a staggering result that underlines the value of complementing traditional inspection methods with new technologies and methodologies. For the virtual inspection in this study, the footage was captured primarily using state-of-the-art Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) drones (some by helicopter), deployed with advanced camera technology from Phase One to provide high-resolution imagery for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted defect detection. The virtual inspection was conducted by EDM International utilizing eSmart Systems Grid Vision® solution.
Drones, or UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicle, but for ease– let’s just call them drones) are the latest addition to the air space. These smaller, unmanned air crafts carry huge potential, especially when it comes to infrastructure inspections.
- With their size, drones can easily fly closer to the assets without putting a human in harms way.
- Drones are also way more sustainable than helicopters, both in carbon footprint and cost of flying.
- The imagery captured by these types of drones are ideal to use in AI-assisted virtual inspections, as they can fly closer and capture high resolution imagery.
- The accuracy of the AI will also improve significantly when the images are of high quality, and therefore save time and money for the utility.
Today’s regulatory landscape.
Another critical difference that sets drones apart from their bigger, carbon-hungry cousins is the ability to fly beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS for short. Flying BVLOS often requires applying for a waiver from the governmental entity of aviation with clear scope and operational descriptions.
The operator must present a clear safety case on how they will deconflict with both traffic in the skies and people on the ground. These safety mitigations may include:
- limiting the operating environment,
- use of electronic surveillance equipment to monitor the airspace,
- or keeping the drone close to the infrastructure that is being inspected.
All safety mitigations are outlined in a concept of operations (ConOps) – which is provided to the aviation authority along with operations manuals and safety management systems detailing the quality of the operator.
Tying this back to the fourth industrial revolution, proponents of using drones list the increased pressure on governments to change their current approach to fit the new possibilities that technology brings. The BVLOS flying of drones to capture infrastructure data is a perfect example of a shifting paradigm.
Utilities provide the ideal proving ground for advancing BVLOS drone operations under aviation regulations. The transmission line environment is defined as
“to include use of proximity to infrastructure as a mitigation to deconflict with manned aircraft traffic”
and routine inspections fall under public interest. As drone inspections scale to larger equipment, federal regulators require the operator to convey how the specific flight operation is in the interest of the public. With the ongoing electrification, and the ever-growing need for an uninterrupted delivery of power, the interest and acceptance has increased.
Following years of lessons learned and 13,000 inspection miles later, Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) recently secured a nationwide waiver for BVLOS drone inspection flights. The transmission line inspection waiver unlocks BVLOS operations for all utilities recognized by the US Department of Energy, providing huge value to increase the cost-efficiency of infrastructure inspections.
in the cost of drone data acquisition
It all started with five miles.
In 2015, Xcel Energy sanctioned a five-mile proof of concept transmission line inspection using drones. Limited by site access, weather, and shortened flight distances, they kept the unmanned aircraft within visual line of sight, the field crew took two and a half days to inspect five miles. Traditional foot patrol methods would have completed the inspection in a single day, underlining that something needed to change to increase the efficiency.
Today, under the BVLOS inspection authorization, the same five-mile stretch piloted by Xcel Energy in 2015 can be inspected in one single flight. For PAU, the distance per flight has grown to ten miles with field crews averaging 45 miles of inspections per day. In July 2020, a flight team inspected over 120 miles in western Minnesota in a single day. The area provided ideal conditions for launch and recovery access, aircraft command and control link, and met all the criteria presented in the safety case to fly extended flight lengths.
Changing the regulatory landscape.
As BVLOS operations have scaled, the cost per mile for acquisition has plummeted. Initial authorizations from regulators required visual observers in a “daisy-chain” configuration to keep watch of the skies when the unmanned aircraft was out of view of the pilot. Additional personnel along the route of flight provided little economic value for drone inspections. Today, the PAU BVLOS waiver authorizes the use of a single “Electronic Observer” monitoring airspace for the pilot. Removal of visual observers and the extension of flight lengths by no longer accounting for visual observer viewing locations has led to a 46% reduction in the cost of drone data acquisition.
In 2016, 14 CFR Part 107 was introduced by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial operations of unmanned aircraft. The rule limited operators to less than 55 pounds total gross weight. The future of drone inspections is pairing BVLOS inspections flights with aircraft that exceed the 55-pound weight limit. An increase in weight will mean an increase in capability to include flying farther with multiple inspection sensors, driving the efficiency and financial gains even further than before and provides utilities the ability to gather high-resolution RGB imagery as well as LiDAR and infrared at the same time.
Some companies – including PAU – are operating larger aircraft outside of the bounds of Part 107. In 2023, the SwissDrones SDO 50 was put into service for powerline inspections. The aircraft flies for two hours at a maximum takeoff weight of 192 pounds – carrying a suite of sensors such as high-resolution inspection cameras, LiDAR, and infrared and near-infrared cameras. Regulators recognize the need for larger aircraft operating in the National Airspace System and are working towards a new set of rules to accommodate these systems. While larger aircraft can be operated under exemptions today, rules are still years away from going into effect, but every journey starts with one step (or five miles of transmission line).
Scalable BVLOS powerline inspections via drone are available now. The foundation is being set by industry leaders who bring aviation experience when seeking approval from regulatory authorities. Operational history and use cases provided by the utility industry – paired with the transmission line operating environment – are under review by regulators. BVLOS rule making will eventually go into effect and the utility industry will be the first to benefit on a wide scale – long before commercial package delivery by drone is common (but we are looking forward to that too!).
Concluding thoughts.
The increased efficiency and financial gains from being able to acquire multiple data sources from one single flight provides a huge step towards grid digitalization and modernization. For virtual inspections to make the high returns that utilities are expecting, they need to consider the holistic inspection process and beyond, not all technologies and methodologies will deliver the same results. eSmart Systems understands the importance of creating great partnerships for our customers, to ensure our AI-assisted software can help utilities detect and identify the smallest defects on their assets, safely behind their desks and that the data captured can be utilized beyond the inspection. We believe in end-to-end solutions for infrastructure inspections, and we are happy to partner with Phoenix Air Unmanned to lead the way for utilities in the new era of inspections.
Contact us today and see how Grid Vision is transforming the way the world’s leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure.
Our approach to AI-assisted virtual inspections is different. We have an asset centric approach to all of our solutions and build your image-based digital asset while you inspect as we know that data can support grid owners in their operations.
What is an image-based digital asset?
This is a digital representation of your physical grid linking your asset to your asset data, inspection data, images, meta data and grid topology.
Why would you need this data?
You may not have easy access to this image-based data today in your core IT systems. This data gives you another dimension of insight into your physical grid, the mechanical state of your grid through structured and tagged photos linked to inspection data, grid topology, meta data and a clear audit trail.
We hear from utilities that images taken of their grid by field crew is often not tagged, unstructured, not linked to an asset and difficult to access. If there are images, they are on a USB stick somewhere, on someone’s mobile phone or in a database that takes ages to load.
What value can an image-based digital asset give you?
From working with 50+ utilities globally we have seen our customers utilize the image-based digital asset in Grid Vision® in various ways and have summarized the top 10 common use cases below:
1. Improved capital planning
Our customers have now based their investment plans on accurate asset data and risk. Supporting them to prioritize their capital planning.
2. Decreased unplanned outage time
Utilizing Grid Vision as part of the outage management process to check the impacted assets and then plan the correct tools and expertise before going on site has seen our customers decrease CAIDI by 28% (43 mins).
3. Identifying common vulnerabilities
Our customers have saved hours from eliminating field visits by identifying assets at risk within Grid Vision at a desk within hours instead of days.
4. Supporting emergency maintenance
Providing Grid Vision to emergency response teams to check for structure types before sending out the crew to the field has saved our customers time and shortened time to restore grid faults.
5. Wildfire mitigation
Multiple customers are using Grid Vision to identify assets at risk from wildfire within hours by searching for components at risk at a desk and providing the visual data to field crews to go and fix.
6. Supporting regulatory reporting and major incidents
Our customers are using Grid Vision to confirm the state of an asset before an incident for root cause analysis and regulatory reporting.
7. Improving situational awareness and business decision
Our customers are using Grid Vision in virtual meetings with leaders to demonstrate challenges with projects.
8. Maintenance & planning
Grid Vision is used by maintenance teams to identify inventory, materials, skills, right of way before going on site.
9. Siting land rights
For new builds, our customers are checking Grid Vision to confirm any siting land rights for new projects. One of our customers identified an undocumented family cemetery on a potential new substation site.
10. Maintenance strategy
Grid Vision is used to support maintenance strategies, one of our customers identified assets failing before end of design life through Grid Vision. This insight helped them to re-prioritize their maintenance strategy to avoid unplanned asset failures.
By leveraging Grid Vision’s image-based digital asset, our customers are unlocking multiple core use cases and saving their teams time, improving safety, reducing costs across multiple departments and improving grid resiliency.
We do more than provide virtual inspections, we start with the asset itself and link the data that is needed to support your asset management processes.
Thinking of making the transition? Contact us today to start your journey.
Recently, there has been an increased adoption of digital tools to carry out overhead line inspections like the use of drones and cameras to collect imagery or visual data and manually analyze them, but a more efficient and effective method of conducting those inspections is by completely digitalizing the process and using AI technology to analyze and sort out the data. Utilities are looking at software to check the health and performance of transmission and distribution assets as part of a suite of digital tools in order to create agility and safety on that side of their operations.
In an October webinar we did with Xcel Energy, Brian Long, Xcel Energy’s Project Director for Transmission Asset Management, clarified “The main reason we do this is to improve our inventory and really understand the condition of our assets.” With fast and robust data being sent to the utility through virtual inspections, utilities can have a clearer picture of the health and efficiency of their T&D network without sending work crews which saves time, gas and labor money, and reduces worker exposure to job hazards from lines and substations. AI-based inspection solutions can also find more defects than traditional methods, and can be used with modeling tools to help predict issues with assets on a timeline which can increase both efficiency and safety.
- BVLOS flying inspected over
in a single day
The new age of powerline inspections.
When working with utilities on their infrastructure inspections, we are constantly being reminded of the immense challenges that modernization, digitalization and huge expansion poses for utilities. And we are not claiming that we can solve all of these challenges on our own, but virtual inspections can support the energy transition and is aligned with the expectations of the new revolution when it is done right.
Virtual line inspections provide a wealth of data in conjunction with various sensors and other devices that can be utilized in the decision-making process for all sorts of applications beyond just asset health. The timing of investment decisions can hinge on which systems most need addressing, and having a complete picture of one’s systems through a synthesized data repository can inform and accelerate that process. More granular data can be used to target specific parts or aspects that need addressing rather than more costly replacements of an entire unit or system. Data can also be used to create efficiencies for field crews both in management’s ability to effectively allocate their efforts, and for the crews themselves if they have easy access to the data in the field. The whole of the utility apparatus can be more deft with these data and analytics tools.
The key to unlocking the business value of virtual inspections is a smart plan executed by skilled staff
On our podcast about AI misconceptions, eSmart System’s CTO Erik Asberg said:
in the cost of drone data acquisition
It all started with five miles.
In 2015, Xcel Energy sanctioned a five-mile proof of concept transmission line inspection using drones. Limited by site access, weather, and shortened flight distances, they kept the unmanned aircraft within visual line of sight, the field crew took two and a half days to inspect five miles. Traditional foot patrol methods would have completed the inspection in a single day, underlining that something needed to change to increase the efficiency.
To get the best use out of the data and the analytics, a robust plan with buy-in from the entire organization is necessary to reach the most efficient applications of the data for the highest return of investment in terms of time, money, and safety. It is also prudent to ensure that staff is properly trained to utilize these tools, or partnerships are formed with skilled professionals familiar with these processes. Collaboration and partnership in general can help fill knowledge gaps for an organization looking to onboard more advanced systems. The tools at our disposal are capable of synthesizing a lot, but they are only tools, we cannot forget the human element.
Concluding thoughts.
Throughout this year, we’ve seen many advancements in utility infrastructure and systems as they modernize for resilience and increasing customer expectations. Making the most out of data in transmission and distribution is both part of the modernization process and an accelerant of it. By creating efficiencies in this space utilities can open up resources for further investment and planning. Collecting data can allow for proactive decision-making on upgrading which makes the grid more resilient. With a clearer understanding of assets, workers can be better allocated and hazards can be identified faster. A utility with a good plan, knowledgeable partner, and trained staff that are kept up throughout the process can use virtual inspections alongside a suite of tools to improve not just their T&D, but the whole enterprise.
Contact us today and see how Grid Vision is transforming the way the world’s leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure.
- Inspektionsdienstleistungs-Programm zur Bereitstellung einer vollständigen virtuellen Inspektion des AllgäuNetz Freileitung Hochspannungsnetz.
- Virtuelle Inspektion unterstützt durch Künstliche Intelligenz.
Die AllgäuNetz ist Verteilnetzbetreiber im südlichen Allgäu in Deutschland. Gemeinsam mit eSmart Systems beginnt AllgäuNetz die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ziel die Inspektion des Freileitungsnetzes deutlich zu verbessern. Die Lösung der eSmart Systems ermöglicht eine virtuelle Inspektion der Freileitungen, die durch eine künstliche Intelligenz unterstützt wird.
Mit diesem Schritt unterstreicht AllgäuNetz ihre Strategie, verstärkt erneuerbare Energien zu integrieren, den Ausbau intelligenter Netze auszudehnen und die Digitalisierung ihrer Assets und Prozesse voranzutreiben. Dies dient dazu, die Energiewende zu unterstützen und gleichzeitig das hohe Maß an Versorgungssicherheit für die AllgäuNetz Kunden zu optimieren.
Wir waren sehr beeindruckt vom Ansatz und der Methodik von eSmart Systems zur Unterstützung unserer Inspektionsanforderungen. Im Rahmen eines ersten Pilotprojekts lieferten die qualitativ hochwertigen und präzisen Inspektionsergebnisse, die im Rahmen von Grid Vision® bereitgestellt wurden, wertvolle Einblicke in unsere kritische Infrastruktur. Wir freuen uns, dies nun in unserem gesamten Hochspannungsnetzbetrieb in dieser Qualität durchführen zu können.
Im Rahmen dieser Partnerschaft bietet eSmart Systems eine vollständige Ende-zu-Ende-Inspektionslösung von der Bilderfassung mit Drohnen und automatisierten Flugmustern bis hin zur virtuellen Inspektion mit Grid Vision®. Somit erhöhen wir die Inspektionseffizienz. Diese Partnerschaft wird sicherere, genauere und effizientere Sichtprüfungen der Freileitungen ermöglichen und die Inspektionskosten optimieren. Zusätzlich wird das Programm ein bildbasiertes digitales Abbild der Freileitungsanlagen erstellen, welches die AllgäuNetz dabei unterstützt, sich bei der Investitionsplanung auf Betriebsmittel, basierend auf ihrem Zustand, für Wartungs- und Reinvestitionsmaßnahmen zu konzentrieren.
Wir freuen uns sehr über die Zusammenarbeit mit AllgäuNetz und sehen gespannt darauf, ihre Digitalisierungsstrategie mit unserem Inspektionsprogramm unter Verwendung unserer Grid Vision® Lösung zu unterstützen. Diese Partnerschaft wird AllgäuNetz sicherere, präzisere und effizientere visuelle Inspektionen ermöglichen und die Effizienz und Sicherheit der kritischen Infrastruktur steigern.
Über die AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG
Die AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG ist der Verteilnetzbetreiber im südlichen Allgäu und versorgt 144.000 Kunden sicher mit Strom.
Eine sichere und zuverlässige Stromversorgung ist eine wichtige Grundlage unserer Gesellschaft. AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG, als Allgäuer Unternehmen Kraftwerke GmbH, Allgäuer Überlandwerk GmbH, Energiegenossenschaft z.B. Mittelberg, Energiebedarf Oberstdorf GmbH und Energiebedarf Oy- Kressen eG stellt sich dieser Verantwortung konsequent.
Mit unseren Mitarbeitern sind wir für große Teile des Stromnetzes im südlichen Allgäu verantwortlich. Das in Betrieb befindliche Stromnetz umfasst ca. 5.500 km Leitungen auf einer Fläche von ca. 1.700 km².
Durch das Zusammenspiel erneuerbarer Energien, intelligenten Netzausbau und -betrieb sowie zuverlässige flächendeckende Betreuung sorgen wir für ein hohes Maß an Versorgungssicherheit.
Gemeinsam mit unseren Privatkunden, Gewerbebetrieben und den Gemeinden im südlichen Allgäu arbeiten wir täglich an der sich verändernden Energielandschaft und setzen die Veränderungen gemeinsam innovativ und zielorientiert um.
Über eSmart Systems
eSmart Systems ist ein führender Anbieter von KI-gestützten Lösungen für die Inspektion und Wartung kritischer Infrastrukturen. Mit unserer Softwarelösung, Grid Vision® revolutionieren wir die Betriebs- und Wartungsprozesse von Netzbetreibern für ihre Übertragungs- und Verteilungsnetze. Wir unterstützen Netzbetreiber weltweit dabei, Inspektionskosten zu senken, Inspektionen sicherer zu gestalten, die Qualität der Asset informationen zu verbessern und die Lebensdauer der Assets zu verlängern.
- Inspection as a Service program to deliver full virtual inspection of AllgäuNetz’s distribution network.
- Virtual inspection supported by Artificial Intelligence.
AllgäuNetz the Distribution System Operator in southern Allgäu, Germany is partnering with eSmart Systems to transition their infrastructure inspection from manual to virtual inspection supported by Artificial Intelligence. This move is to emphasize AllgäuNetz’s strategy of integrating more renewables and expanding their intelligent networks and digitalizing their assets and operations to support the energy transition and optimise a high level of security of supply to their customers.
Wir waren sehr beeindruckt vom Ansatz und der Methodik von eSmart Systems zur Unterstützung unserer Inspektionsanforderungen. Im Rahmen eines ersten Pilotprojekts lieferten die qualitativ hochwertigen und präzisen Inspektionsergebnisse, die im Rahmen von Grid Vision® bereitgestellt wurden, wertvolle Einblicke in unsere kritische Infrastruktur. Wir freuen uns, dies nun in unserem gesamten Hochspannungsnetzbetrieb in dieser Qualität durchführen zu können.
As part of this partnership eSmart Systems will provide the full end-to-end inspection solution from image capture with automated flight patterns and drones to the virtual inspection, which will provide safer, more accurate and efficient visual inspections and will optimize the inspection costs. The program will also build an image-based digital asset alongside the inspection which will support AllgäuNetz to focus on assets based on condition for maintenance and rebuilds.
Wir freuen uns sehr über die Zusammenarbeit mit AllgäuNetz und sehen gespannt darauf, ihre Digitalisierungsstrategie mit unserem Inspektionsprogramm unter Verwendung unserer Grid Vision® Lösung zu unterstützen. Diese Partnerschaft wird AllgäuNetz sicherere, präzisere und effizientere visuelle Inspektionen ermöglichen und die Effizienz und Sicherheit der kritischen Infrastruktur steigern.
About AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG
AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG is the Distribution System Operator in southern Allgäu, Germany, supplying safe and secure electricity to 144,000 customers.
A safe and reliable power supply is an important basis for our society. AllgäuNetz GmbH & Co. KG, as a company belonging to Allgäuer Kraftwerke GmbH, Allgäuer Überlandwerk GmbH, Energiegenossenschaft eG Mittelberg, Energiebedarf Oberstdorf GmbH and Energiebedarf Oy-Kressen eG, consistently faces up to this responsibility.
With our employees, we are responsible for large parts of the power grid in southern Allgäu. The power grid in operation includes approximately 5,500 km of lines in an area of approximately 1,700 km².
Through the interaction of renewable energies, intelligent network expansion and operation as well as reliable support across the area, we ensure a high level of security of supply.
Together with our private customers, commercial businesses and the communities in southern Allgäu, we work daily on the changing energy landscape and implement the changes together in an innovative and goal-oriented manner.
About eSmart Systems
eSmart Systems is a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. With our software solution, Grid Vision® we revolutionize how utility companies operate and maintain their transmission and distribution networks. We support utilities globally to reduce inspection costs, make inspections safer, improve the quality of asset data and prolong asset life. eSmart Systems has more than 20 years of international experience in establishing and operating knowledge-based, leading IT and energy-related companies targeting global markets.
In this whitepaper, learn what to consider and how you can realize the benefits of the new generation of infrastructure inspections and increase the resiliency of your power grid.
The project, completed in 2021, focused on hardware and defects identification. The project looked at cotter pins, with an emphasis on loose and upside-down cotter pins. The project was able to automatically detect over 11,000 total and successfully identify 781 upside-down pins within a few seconds. The project enabled the public utility’s maintenance engineers to efficiently locate the 2-inch upside-down cotter pins on up to 100 feet high towers and assess their conditions. The outcome of the project is an increase in powerline safety, field worker safety, and, as result, community safety. The case-study described below demonstrates the potential of virtual powerline inspections in enhancing community safety.
Introduction
Multiple large-scale wildfires are reported in the US every year. Such events cost tens of billions of dollars in direct costs such as property loss and damage and indirect costs such as long-term health exposures, market loss, and non-collectable taxes, etc[1]. The consequences of such events can be disastrous from a human, material, and environmental perspective.
Defects in the power grid can cause wildfires; active causes can include a tree or branch falling over a powerline and sparking a wildfire. Triggered material or old powerline components can generate arcs or sparks, and under dry weather conditions and with dry surrounding vegetation, can lead to disastrous and hard to control wildfires.
- BVLOS flying inspected over
in a single day
The new age of powerline inspections.
When working with utilities on their infrastructure inspections, we are constantly being reminded of the immense challenges that modernization, digitalization and huge expansion poses for utilities. And we are not claiming that we can solve all of these challenges on our own, but virtual inspections can support the energy transition and is aligned with the expectations of the new revolution when it is done right.
Cotter pins, however, could wear out and loosen over time. A loose and upside-down cotter pin is more likely to slip, becoming unsafe and increasing the chance of conductor failure and the probability of generating an arc flash touching their surroundings. Therefore, a main focus of the efforts led by the public utility to minimize the chance of wildfires is the management and maintenance of cotter pins specifically. As they are more likely to be upside-down than loose, the public utility decided to first assess the number of upside-down cotter pins on their grid. However, manually identifying the orientation of cotter pins is a tedious and resource-consuming task, as there can be as many as 50 2-inch cotter pins on each lattice tower, and the grid in this case includes over 1000 lattice towers.
The new approach
Both the public utility and the engineering and construction company defined the inspection process based on the required scope and accessibility of each structure. eSmart Systems shared their expertise to support that process definition and provided access to Grid Vision, a virtual inspection solution for power grids, enabling professionals to inspect powerlines from the office. Virtual inspection is a new approach to conducting powerline inspections by leveraging the power of automation, smart algorithms, and user-friendly interfaces to facilitate the work of the professionals analyzing the status of the infrastructure. Virtual inspections are also supported with artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically and promptly identify all the components of a power grid, as well as to detect various failures in the grid. With the application of such technologies, the software was able to identify 781 instances of upside-down cotter pins out of 11,000 cotter pin crops, within seconds (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Examples of an upside-down cotter pin automatically detected in the grid.
By associating those findings with information of the tower on which the upside-down cotter pins were located, the public utility could identify which towers required attention instantly. This approach has improved the efficiency and accuracy of identifying upside-down cotter pins and improved safety by having line workers only climbing structures when needed.
The utility also looked at other types of key components and their failure modes (flashed insulators, woodpecker damage on wooden transmission towers, rust on lattice towers, etc.) that could be identified utilizing this new approach for a proactive maintenance of powerlines. C-hooks and shackles, which are used for affixing insulators to brackets attached to crossarms, are particularly important components to look at in this context. The lattice towers are over 50 years old. Nonetheless, the virtual detection system was able to identify over 25,000 crops of C-hooks and shackles on the images captured during the inspection and very little wear was detected.
Figure 2: Examples of (a) a c-hook in good condition, (b) very limited level of wear seen on c-hooks during the project and (c) a shackle, highlighting the general good condition of those components in the grid.
Utilities are constantly looking for innovative ways to improve safety inspection and grid maintenance. This project has demonstrated that well-designed solutions supported by AI are game-changing tools, making inspection easier, more efficient and safer. The collaborative AI approach was instrumental to ensuring the correct components were identified and defects detected. The construction company’s review of the results from eSmart Systems’ Grid Vision solution ensured that high quality inspection standards were met and illustrated how utilities and engineering companies can benefit from virtual inspection tools.
The success of this program demonstrates how proactive actions can be implemented to enhance power grid management efficiency, and proves that smart solutions could help prevent wildfires, in addition to illustrating numerous other advantages, such as new quality assessment possibilities, defect detection standardization, and increased trust in data.
Contact us today and see how Grid Vision is transforming the way the world’s leading energy providers inspect and maintain critical infrastructure.
[1]https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-media/NFPA-Journal/2020/November-December-2020/Features/Wildfire
Zeina Othman from Mälardalens University in Sweden is working in partnership with eSmart Systems on her thesis “Re-designing Organizational Routines in the Echo of AI Algorithms”. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop an understanding of how organizations need to re-design and influence processes when introducing and deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI).
eSmart Systems has been working with AI within our Grid Vision® solution for over 10 years, as a co-pilot for conducting virtual inspection of transmission and distribution grids through a process we call Collaborative-AI. We are working with over 50 utilities globally in supporting their journey to virtual inspections using Grid Vision.
Technology has a huge impact on large organizations in terms of processes, adoption, and change management, and we are thrilled to partner with Zeina to explore this journey with one of our key European customers.
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About Zeina Othman
Zeina Othman studies and teaches international project management at Mälardalens University in Sweden. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, Zeina worked in project management with the UN and non-governmental organizations in Jordan including USAID and Jordan River Foundation. She also worked in Abu Dhabi/UAE for Accenture and Lockheed Martin Global Inc.
