The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) deployed, this week, 15 drones to monitor its networks. These specialist survey craft are owned and flown by Swiss manufacturer Wingtra, reports esi-africa.com.
They travel BVLOS up to 8km from the operator and can remain in the air for around one hour. The drones will be used to conduct routine inspections to identify the encroachment of vegetation.
Also, the technology will be employed to undertake thermal monitoring to locate any hot spots on the networks, so that these can be promptly rectified. In addition, they’ll be used to verify the completion of works and to undertake route mapping for the construction of new lines.
ECG MD Kwame Agyeman-Budu, said, “Drones and AI are quickly becoming important tools in the operations of transmission and distribution utilities. They have the ability to provide access to difficult locations on power-lines, for example, for the purpose of carrying out inspections without creating outages.”
The deployment of the drones should significantly reduce the risk of injury to personnel and reduce both the time and costs of undertaking inspections.
ECG believe the inclusion of the drone system in to their operations will improve efficiency, reliability of power supply to customers, and modernise their operations.
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(News Source: https://www.esi-africa.com)