Drones to detect faults in power lines

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) has introduced drone-based survey of its transmission corridor to detect the fault in the lines and take up immediate repair and maintenance to restore the supply in any particular area.
Earlier, the towers or the power lines were being surveyed traditionally, which has a number of limitations. These can be avoided by adapting trending technologies for which the drone-based survey system has been introduced, OPTCL chief managing director Sanjay Mishra said.
Officials said earlier, binoculars and thermo-vision cameras were being used to inspect the power lines closely. However, in this method, the upper sides of the lines and towers often went unnoticed.
“The traditional methods of overhead power line inspections are mostly unsuited for the task as the height of transmission towers is too high and wide. It is quite cumbersome and difficult to inspect the lines falling under difficult or unapproachable areas,” Mishra added.
An OPTCL spokesperson said through the drone survey, it is planned to capture the RGB and thermal images and videos of all the towers and line spans in different angles and undertake immediate repairs of the same to restore power supply.
Using the images or videos through the AI-based automated fault-detection mechanism, OPTCL can identify the faults or vulnerable points to take early preventive actions. “This will reduce the burden on our human resources,” the spokesperson added.
The drone-based survey will be taken up regularly along the transmission corridors, officials said.