Phase One, a pioneering provider of professional purpose-built aerial cameras and developer of digital imaging technologies, has announced a collaboration with LINIA, a provider of software solutions that enables an automated and digitized inspection process. The integration between LINIA’s drone application and the Phase One P3 100mp camera enables a fast, automated, structured and reliable data acquisition process. Together they empower customers to achieve increased productivity and automation during difficult and high-risk power grid inspections.
“We’re super excited to partner with LINIA” said Michael Messerchmidt, Portfolio Director – Drones/UAVs. “Together with our joint customer, we have proven the value that our solution can provide for power grid inspections. Not only did they save time and increase efficiency when completing their +1000 transmission power inspections, but they also managed to capture high quality data while also eliminating inspection hazards by safely inspecting assets at dangerous heights, high-voltage areas and hard-to-reach locations without putting employees at risk. “
Lorenzo Arizzoli-Bulato, Co-Founder of LINIA states, “A drone pilot can easily capture data of a single power line tower. The challenge rises when 1000 or more towers need to be inspected in a short period of time. How do you ensure a consistent, safe and well-structured data acquisition? That is where LINIA adds value to the inspection process.”
Together, Phase One and LINIA offer customers:
- Speed: Depending on the size of the tower, it takes between 3 – 5 minutes to capture 20-30 images of a single TSO-tower (220/380kV) or 2-3 minutes for a DSO-tower (110kV). Within a single flight of 15-20 minutes airtime, the photos of 3 TSO-towers or 4-6 DSO-towers are acquired.
- Significant cost reduction: Minimizing the number of site visits by trained professionals and saving cost preventing repairs of unwanted shutdowns, making inspections significantly faster and much more cost-effective.
- Improved assets management: Better observation, detailed and long-term documentation and timely preventive repairs of critical areas are crucial for long-term asset management. By significantly improving the quality of inspections customers can ensure they have all the information they need to manage and operate a first-class working energy infrastructure.
- Safety: Assessing the distance between the line and the drone is very challenging, from a far position. There is always the possibility of human failure, when flying the drones manually. LINIAair is designed for line men, which means, basic drone knowledge is sufficient to execute safe drone operations. Automated and approved flight routes minimize the risk of mishandling the drone and raise the overall flight safety.
- Effective maintenance: With the Phase One P3 and the iXM 100MP sensor, efficiency is at the forefront of inspection activities. It empowers customers to take a series of high-quality pictures from different angles detecting technical malfunctions and determine the precise GPS location of the assets, so customers are empowered to perform a predictive asset assessment, minimizing maintenance costs and service disruptions.
- Faster restoration of power supply: Users can now significantly reduce the time to identify the fault and restore power in case of outages compared to traditional methods. Utilities can clearly see the problem via provided imagery data, pinpoint its location using GPS and start working on the resolution.
