PG&E fleet of drones inspect and help replace power lines
PG&E fleet of drones inspect and help replace power lines
PG&E is going to have its own air force pretty soon. It might already. The utility publicly unveiled some of its drone capabilities Tuesday at its San Ramon headquarters, with drone pilots, industry professionals, contractors and media talking about drone capabilities and new technology making PG&Es job easier.
SAN RAMON, Calif. - At San Ramon's Bishop Ranch office complex, Pacific Gas & Electric hosted an international drone conference on Tuesday. Eight years ago, PG&E became one of the first utilities to use drones for equipment and line inspections.
Today, PG&E and its contractors operate one of the largest, most advanced drone inspection programs in the world.
"The amount of defects that we have found since starting this program has definitely increased the reliability of the system," said PG&E Aerial Surveys Manager Kellen Kirk.
Last year, the company began using drones to perform natural gas pipeline leak surveys on 16 miles of underwater crossings, instead of using boats. This year, it became California's first utility to get Federal Aviation Administration approval to conduct inspections beyond the visual sight of the drone operators.
"So, they're seeing things for the very first time that they've never seen before," from the vantage point of a helicopter or a person who's climbed atop a tower, said David Culler of Precision Hawk Drones & Software, a PG&E contractor.
Skydio makes drones that can essentially fly themselves into very tight spots without colliding with anything.
"The pilot can essentially look at the controls or look at the screen, look at the feed and do their job without constantly having to worry about where the drone is necessarily," said Skydio’s Dave Buhrman.
So, these quiet drones can be deployed in tight areas and conditions where helicopters cannot fly, especially in rough terrain during and after storms as well as in tight and complex urban environments.
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"Often the customers didn't even know that there's an activity occurring which is really a great testament about how the technology can be used," said Joshua Williams of Infravision.
Infravision, provides PG&E with drones that actually string new or replacement power lines onto power poles and repair winter storm-damaged equipment faster than ever. :We can continue to use it for storm repair, outages and any other construction where traditional methods just aren't a viable solution," said PG&E’s drone chief Kirk.
"I think it's a strategic impact for these companies to improve the reliability of their grid," said Precision Hawks Culler.
This is just the beginning, because, everything that this drone learns can be passed on with artificial intelligence to every other drone, making them all more efficient and smarter each and every day, with or without a human operator.
"Amazing what you're gonna see in the future," said Culler.