Telangana uses drones to inspect power lines and towers
Hyderabad: Continuing its effort to put new-age technology to use in real life cases, Telangana successfully piloted drone-based inspection of extra high tension (EHT) transmission line towers and lines of power utility TRANSCO.
The pilot project aimed at leveraging drones and artificial intelligence to overcome the limitations of manual tower inspections.
The Emerging Technologies wing of Telangana’s Information Technology department initiated the project in partnership with TS-TRANSCO. In this, Hyderabad based startup Centillion Networks used drone technology for inspection, monitoring and patrolling of EHT Transmission towers, lines, and sub-stations with 4K resolution camera and AI-based image recognition system.
The pilots were undertaken for inspection of EHT transmission line towers for 220 KV Chandrayagutta – Ghanapur line, 220 KV Shivarampally – Gachibowli line, 132 KV Minpur -Jogipet line, 220 KV Budidampadu – Waddekothapally line, and for another 10 towers.
The inspection of each tower was completed within 20 minutes and the reports included photos and videos along with exact issues and actionable interventions. It is estimated that automated inspections using drones can reduce the man-hours and costs by 50 per cent in addition to reducing the potential life risk that is posed by manual inspection of high-tension lines.
The project is soon expected to be scaled up by TS-TRANSCO.
“Telangana is one of the leading states in leveraging drones across various use-cases, and the inspection of towers for TS-TRANSCO is one of them. The use of drones can both speed up the activities and reduce the hazards to human. With the new drone rules liberalising the sector, the adoption can be rapidly scaled,” daid IT and Industries Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
Centillion Founder Venkat Chundi said tower inspection by drones is useful for accurate data collection and analysis. This can reduce maintenance costs and also risks involved.
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