Hotline of power engineering specialists:
In 2019, specialists of Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo examined over 1,000 km using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The first three quadcopters were put at the disposal of the diagnostic and power lines services of the branch last July.
UAVs allow to quickly fly around long sections of overhead lines to determine the fault location, as well as significantly increase the efficiency of scheduled inspections of power lines. Last year, with the help of aircraft, a total of about 300 defects were identified, which were immediately entered into the equipment status database with a view to further elimination.
“A crew of six people would examine one thousand kilometres of power lines for 40 working days, but it took us 4 times less time,” says Anton Koshevoy, an engineer of the southern section of the power line service. “Thus, without the involvement of equipment and personnel, we received reliable data on the technical condition of the equipment, which, in turn, allowed us to accurately plan repairs, clearing and expansion of routes and to ensure quality control of their implementation.”
During emergency outages, UAVs allow flying inspection of power lines without putting them into repair, which reduces the time to find out causes of a malfunction, while consumers continue to receive electricity. After each flyby, specialists of the power line service plan measures to eliminate identified defects: restoration of security zones of power lines, wire dimensions, insulation, levelling of poles, updating of dispatcher names.
