Leveraging overhead powerline inspection using drones and digitalization

The recent development and massification of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as the miniaturization of accurate and reliable sensors have been contributing to an increased use of this type of vehicles in the inspection of electrical assets, particularly in powerline inspection. The growth in process digitalization and automation tools, with a particular focus on the use of artificial intelligence, have challenged the sector and have contributed (and promises to contribute even more) to increase the quality of inspection outputs as well as increasing the efficiency of this task, naturally creating expectations regarding the potential cost reduction of this activity. The EDP Labelec use case, within the scope of inspections conducted for the Portuguese DSO E-REDES, has successfully explored the opportunities created by the combination of these two phenomena: the use of drones for power line inspection and the digitalization/automation of the data analysis process. This work explores the critical role of drones in modernizing powerline inspection, underscoring their contribution to efficiency and safety. It highlights LiDAR, RGB, and IR as the primary technologies for effective data acquisition, providing a comprehensive analysis of powerline infrastructure and illustrates the transformative impact of digitalization, automation, and AI in enhancing the quality and efficiency of powerline inspection analysis.