PG&E Shows Off New Drones Used To Inspect Power Lines

By Tony Hicks

PG&E is going to have its own air force pretty soon.

It might already. The utility publicly unveiled some of its drone capabilities Tuesday at its San Ramon headquarters, with drone pilots, industry professionals,
contractors and media talking about drone capabilities and new technology making PG&E’s job easier.

But clearly, the star of the show was the Infravision TX UAV Stringing System.

The large drone, which stayed in its own transport truck in the parking lot, carries line between power poles in areas where lines are down.

That’s become a particular issue for PG&E over the past decade, as climate change-fueled extreme weather knocks down more power lines, which causes more outages.

Instead of workers hauling lines in dangerous terrain and bad weather, or requiring areas and weather clear enough for helicopters to help, the TX UAV pulls line that can weigh a couple hundred pounds from pole to pole.

It was commissioned in 2022 and has been used 20 times so far, a number the utility expects to go up as it expands the program.

“The technology amazes me,” said Joshua Hill, an unmanned aerial system operations manager. “You know, every day we’re reading about new technologies and we’re trying to get those technologies and see what’s the best.”

“We utilize this system for locations that are difficult to access by foot or by boat or by helicopter,” Hill said. ” If we can’t use those other options, this is a great option to get us to replace our power lines or repair our power lines over those areas. That way we can reduce the outage minutes to our customers and get them turned on faster and ultimately that results in cost savings as well as just getting power on faster.”

PG&E says it’s the first utility in North America to use this technology from Australian company Infravision. Hill said it was a big help last winter, which was one of California’s stormiest ever.

“Last winter was a big challenge for our system and in certain areas, like in the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the North Coast,” Hill said. “We were able to utilize the system and replace a lot of power lines. And we were able to keep our crews safe by utilizing the technology to go over extreme conditions that would normally have resulted in longer outages and more hardship on the crews on the ground.”

PG&E spokesperson Paul Doherty said 18 of the 20 times the TX UAV has been used so far was for storm damage.

PG&E also displayed smaller drones it frequently uses to examine equipment, a program that started in 2015 and was significantly ramped up in 2020. Two of them buzzed over the utility headquarters’ parking lot Tuesday. PG&E has more than 60 in service all around the state.

Unlike the TX UAV, which requires a line-of-sight operator within about a mile of the device, most of the smaller observation drones are operated by pilots in a centralized control center in Concord.

“These make things clear, a little bit safer and add an additional level of situational awareness,” said Jon Teach, a UAS operations program manager working with the observation drones. “They’re thorough. That’s, you know, our main purpose.”

Eli Thomas is a pilot who flies inspection drones for PG&E contractor Cyberhawk. He said drones allow pilots to find problems line inspectors and helicopter pilots just can’t physically get to.

“I found a lot of issues, dozens that could have failed within 12 hours,” Thomas said.

“Just during routine inspections. That’s just throughout my career. I can’t even imagine how many other pilots have found. It’s really useful.”