At present, the software and hardware supporting the drone automatic driving technology of Guangdong Power Grid Company have been fully developed, and the entire system has realized automatic charging, automatic route planning, automatic inspection, and automatic analysis of defects. The person in charge of the Guangdong Power Grid Machine Patrol Center said that by 2025, all drones in the Guangdong Power Grid will be converted from manual remote control to automatic driving. Big data set sail: Data analysis has become an important productivity. The traditional line tour of mountain trails and wading laser pointer has low efficiency and high risk of high-altitude operations. UAVs and helicopters can replace manual labor to achieve large-scale and intelligent operations, improve quality and efficiency, and increase safety.
The large number of applications of drones has made data analysis a further “important productivity” of the power grid, and has made eye-catching performances in improving equipment operation and maintenance, tapping power supply potential, and conducting disaster investigation and relief. “Guangdong Power Grid has established the nation’s first professional analysis and management platform for machine patrol data, and built a 36,000-kilometer ‘digital channel’, covering more than half of the main network, enabling the measurement, analysis and predictability of equipment status. “Peng Chigang introduced that last year during the summer peak season, data analysis was used to tap the power supply potential of the 7 220 kV lines in Yunfu, increasing the power supply by nearly 80 million kilowatt hours per month.
Drones have also become a “weapon” for surveying disaster situations and for accurate repairs after disasters. In 2017, a strong typhoon “Tiange” struck Zhuhai. Guangdong Power Grid Company dispatched 7 helicopters and 136 drones to complete a disaster survey of 65 transmission lines in 20 hours, with a length of 1,200 kilometers, which is 3 times more efficient than manual labor. 103 hidden defects such as inverted towers, broken lines, and floating objects were found, which provided accurate laser pointers disaster data distribution maps for subsequent repairs.