Oil and gas companies, utilities and pipeline companies will be able to use unmanned aircraft to inspect their equipment after storms and other incidents under a bill Congress passed this week.
But Atlanta-based Southern Co. is well on its way to using drones rather than helicopters, airplanes and bucket trucks to look for damage to its power lines and substations.
Southern Co. began testing drones at Georgia Power's Klondike Training Facility in Lithonia last year after becoming one of the first utilities to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Georgia Power is a subsidiary of Southern Co.
The provision allowing commercial drone flights by utilities and other energy companies was part of a bill the Senate and House approved extending funding authorization to the FAA for another year, until September 2017.
The American Petroleum Institute welcomed the bill’s passage.
“The ability to use drones will allow the industry to use the latest technologies to continue to effectively monitor infrastructure and facilities while minimizing the risk to personnel,” said Robin Rorick, with API.
In a video on Southern Co.'s testing of drones, Paul Schneider, a senior transmission specialist with the electric utility, said the small remote-controlled aircraft, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, could "revolutionize" inspections and speed up the company's ability to restore power after storms.
“With UAVs we’ll be able to find issues immediately,” he said.
The company uses a combination of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to inspect its 27,000 miles of transmission lines for encroaching vegetation, broken insulators or other issues.
The company’s “smart grid” can show general locations of damage after storms, but line crews have to locate the actual damage — a task that could be more easily and safely done by flying drones.
Southern also completed its acquisition this month of Atlanta natural gas utility AGL Resources, adding a large network of pipelines to its domain.
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