Sparks Electrical News August 2017

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AUGUST 2017
• MCCs and motor
protection
• Energy Efficiency
• Lighting
FEATURES
Electrical utilities have a new weapon in their war against
downtime: Drones.
Unmanned aerial systems, or drones, are offering a cost-effective
alternative to manual inspections of often hard to reach infrastructure,
and are promising a future in which reactive maintenance makes way
for predictive operations. While this may sound like a solution employed
only by extremely high-tech and well-funded companies, drones are
already being used by South African utilities, mines, renewable energy
companies and civil engineering firms.
Braam Botha, head of operations at UAV Industries explains that
drones are replacing extremely expensive helicopter flights as well as
laborious manual operations, offering better results at a fraction of the
cost. “Using drones to conduct inspections of electrical infrastructure
is extremely cost effective, as there is less manpower and less time
required, while yielding greater accuracy in the data captured.”
Drones allow for real-time inspection and immediate sharing of the
results, and because they use HD and infrared imaging, drones obtain
much more detailed information that might never have been picked up
on manual inspections. The fact that the drone is flying into sometimes
hazardous areas means there is a safety benefit for workers as well.
Botha adds that South Africa has some of the most stringent drone
regulations in the world, and as a result, organisations requiring the use
of drones often outsource the job to companies like UAV Industries,
which has the skills of trained drone pilots as well as the correct drones
for the job. “We import specialised inspection drones that have been
modified for industrial inspections. Owing to the numerous metal
elements involved in a boiler inspection, for example, a commercial
drone, such as those available in the shops, is not suitable as it has not
been modified to eliminate the risks of external interferences that could
be caused by metal elements during flight.”
Boiler inspection simplified
Without a drone, the procedure for inspecting a boiler would
involve shutting down the boiler in order to conduct a first
manual inspection. Scaffolding would then have to be built
around the boiler, which would require signoff from the relevant
safety and security department or team before it could be
used. There would then need to be a further manual inspection
of the boiler to identify the problem, and these findings would
be shared with the relevant engineers to decide on a solution.
This is a time consuming procedure, with a high running
cost due to the downtime of the boiler, the required manpower
and the number of steps required to determine the results of
the inspection. “UAV Industries’ partners have reported up to
seven days of boiler ‘down time’ during these types of manual
inspections, which can drain up to R1 million of a company’s
revenue,” says Botha.
“Using a drone, there is no need to shut down the boiler for
nearly as long. A visual inspection is made initially and pre-
flight safety checks are done according to SACAA regulations.
Within 20minutes,a drone should be able to take off to conduct
an aerial inspection of the boiler under normal conditions. The
scaffolding and manual inspection are eliminated completely,
saving significant time and cost,” he explains.
Using infrared and HD footage, drones can provide real-
time data which can be sent to the relevant engineers almost
instantaneously. They are then able to make a final call on what
needs to be done. This means that within a few hours, the boiler
can be up and running effectively again.
No more pylon climbing
Power line maintenance for electric utilities is expensive,
dangerous, and time consuming. Many have started using
thermal hot-spot recognition, which uses a thermal camera to inspect
power lines for high-impedance areas. As a result of the fact that
these high-impedance areas generate more heat than the surrounding
UTILITY MAINTENANCE FLYING HIGH
Contractors’ corner | Buyers’ guide | People on the move REGULARS:
This image was taken with a drone, and is a blade in a boiler with the
problem highlighted.
“Using drones to conduct inspections of
electrical infrastructure is extremely cost
effective, as there is less manpower and
less time required, while yielding greater
accuracy in the data captured.”
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