The demonstration proved that humans don’t have to be directly involved with this level of grid monitoring, said lead researcher Peter Fuhr, who also leads the Grid Sensing and Communications group at ORNL. Drone-based sensors could pinpoint problems faster.

EPB is interested in implementing the approach because accurate, early recognition of electric line malfunctions can prevent outages and save money. “The biggest opportunity is identifying imminent equipment failure,” said Jim Glass, assistant vice president of Smart Grid Operations for EPB. “Just as with your health, if you catch problems early, you can correct them with less expense and difficulty. Proactively addressing problems before customers experience outages provides tremendous benefit.” 

The automated drone inspection and its technology are part of a collaborative project called Autonomous Intelligent Measurement Sensors and systems, or AIMS, funded by DOE’s Office of Electricity. ORNL researchers developed the system for using machine-to-machine communications to automatically sense problems, generate work orders and coordinate multi-stage drone inspection of electrical transmission equipment. The project also supports processing the drone data and images so they are useful in rapid decision making. 

AIMS customizes off-the-shelf drones, sensors and software along with new technology, algorithms and automated protocols developed by ORNL. Using commercial technology when possible makes the approach practical and affordable for electricity providers.

“This is completely novel to the utility world,” Fuhr said. “No one has put this together as a holistic system before. We’re taking these components and operating them in a very different way, tailoring the math, hardware and software to the needs of utilities.”  

In the cases when commercially available products were not affordable for use across a utility system, the ORNL team designed new technology. For example, ultraviolet cameras for the drones were priced at $25,000 and weighed 10 pounds. ORNL researchers invented a combination visual/ultraviolet/invisible light sensor that’s less than 1 percent of the cost and weighs less than a pound, Fuhr said. 

This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "Protecting electric grid health with drone-based power line inspection" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news