Page 6 - Minister Mike de Meza
P. 6
TECHNOLOGY A23
Monday 23 November 2015
Utilities see potential in drones to inspect lines, towers
BY MARY ESCH In a Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, photo, Bernd Lutz, CEO of Boul- aerial vehicles operated by for $300, without putting
ASSOCIATED PRESS der, Colorado-based bizUAS Corp., which provides drone ser- outside vendors to inspect workers in danger.”
BLENHEIM, N.Y. (AP) -- U.S. vices for utilities and other industries, prepares to demonstrate wind turbines, utility poles The Bureau of Labor Statis-
utilities see great potential the use of a Cyberhawk octocopter drone for power line in- and transformers. The utility tics reports 17 fatal work in-
in the use of remote-con- spections at a New York Power Authority site in the Catskills, is part of a UAV task force juries among utility workers
trolled drones to do the near Blenheim, N.Y. under the Edison Electric in 2014, but doesn’t specify
often-dangerous work of Institute, the association the cause.
inspecting power lines and Associated Press representing U.S. investor- Other industries, including
transmission towers but owned electric companies. oil and gas drillers, pipe-
strict regulations have so While hobbyists can fly The FAA treats the opera- “When you look at the line operators, construction
far slowed adoption of the drones without certifica- tion of drones like any other amount of information we companies, and agricul-
technology. tion, the Federal Aviation aircraft for safety reasons can gain to make accu- ture are also investigating
The remote-controlled de- Administration requires spe- and commercial operators rate decisions about our the use of drones to make
vices make the work of cial certification for com- face strict rules for getting systems, and look at the inspection and mapping
linemen safer, more effi- mercial users. There are permission to use them, ac- cost and time savings, this tasks faster, more accu-
cient and less expensive, numerous conditions and cording to the agency. is a huge opportunity for rate, safer and less costly.
according to the Electric limitations: The drone oper- Seven U.S. utilities have us,” said Andrew Bordine, a “The main advantage we
Power Research Institute, ator needs a pilot’s license, been granted FAA approv- Consumers Energy execu- provide in small unmanned
which last month put on the aircraft must weigh less al for testing drone technol- tive. assets is safety,” said Mark
a three-day workshop to than 55 pounds, flights can ogy in 2015. Consumers En- The UAV system Consumers Sickling, chief pilot for Cy-
help nearly a dozen utilities go no more than 200 feet ergy in Michigan conduct- Energy uses starts at about berhawk, a drone com-
choose the best machines above the ground, and the ed a series of tests over the $10,000, Bordine said. Sen- pany based in the United
for the job. Miniature heli- drone must be operated in summer using its own eight- sor attachments range Kingdom that does aerial
copter-like drones, some the pilot’s line of sight. rotor drone and unmanned from a few thousand dol- inspections for utilities and
equipped with cameras lars to upward of $100,000, the oil and gas industry. At
and other sensors, con- he said. But the cost sav- the workshop, Sickling dem-
ducted demonstration in- ings are far greater than onstrated Cyberhawk’s
spections of transmission the investment. most popular drone, the
lines at a hydroelectric Consumers Energy spends eight-rotor G4 Eagle, which
plant in the Catskill Moun- several hundred thousand boasts “unprecedented
tains. dollars a year to send peo- flight and image stability.”
“We want to start using ple out in the field to do The work done by Consum-
drones next spring when mapping and measuring of ers Energy over the sum-
the inspection season be- its electrical system, Bordine mer could also be done
gins,” said Alan Ettlinger, said. A UAV equipped with with a drone flying without
research and technology “lidar,” the sensor technol- direct human control using
director for the New York ogy used to develop driv- instructions entered into an
Power Authority, who at- erless cars, can collect the onboard flight computer if
tended the workshop. same data and more at a the FAA allowed it, Bordine
Utilities spend millions of dol- small fraction of the cost said.
lars inspecting power lines, and time. “The FAA is looking at how
which are often in hard-to- “With wind turbines, you’ll to revamp its requirements
reach places. The industry have a couple of guys to make the technology
has been interested in the hanging off the blades by more accessible to more
potential use of drones for a rope a couple hundred companies,” Bordine said.
years, but has been slower feet in the air to do inspec- “A goal for me would be to
than European companies tions visually, at a cost up- get FAA approval to work
to adopt the technology wards of $10,000 per site,” with a remote applica-
because of U.S. regulatory Bordine said. “We can get tion and an autonomous
restrictions. the same results with a UAV flight.”q
