Inspection of Extra High Tension (EHT) power transmission lines is a tough task. As the giant towers carry the carrier lines over insurmountable areas, inspecting those lines is very difficult.

With a view to reducing the drudgery for workers, the Telangana government has tested a drone-based inspection of these power lines and towers.

“The project was aimed at deploying drones and artificial intelligence to overcome the limitations of manual tower inspections,” an official of the IT Ministry said.

AAI likely to procure two counter-drone systems worth Rs 9.9 crore in 2022-23

The Emerging Technologies Wing of Telangana’s Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department has tied up with Transmission Corporation of Telangana (TS-Transco) to launch the pilot.

Start-up roped in

It roped in a start-up, Centillion Networks, to deploy drones for inspection, monitoring and patrolling of EHT transmission towers, lines, and substations with high quality 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, and 220 KV Budidampadu - Waddekothapally line.

How drones can beat rush hour by ‘thinking’ on their landers

A drone can complete the inspection of a tower in 20 minutes and generate a set of high-resolution images and videos, which would help the officials check for any lacunae and take up corrective measures.

The drone can even suggest actionable measures that are needed to be initiated immediately.

“It is estimated that automated inspections using drones can reduce manhours and costs by about 50 per cent, in addition to reducing the potential life risk that is posed by manual inspection of high-tension lines,” the official said.