Drone Hangars Boost Grid Reliability During Peak Summer Power Demand

On August 12, operation and maintenance personnel from State Grid Jinhua Power Supply Company arrived at the foot of a mountain in Xiangzhu Town. With a light tap on the electronic control panel, a drone automatically took off from its hangar and began an autonomous inspection of a 10-kilovolt power line. This marked the 187th mission carried out by the “drone hangar” since the start of the peak summer power demand period.

“In the past, inspecting this line meant bringing enough food and water, climbing two mountains, and spending at least half a day,” said one operator while checking the real-time data transmitted back by the drone. “Now, it gets the job done in just a short while.”

Under the “drone hangar” model, once a mission is completed, the drone can land precisely and recharge automatically, ready to “take off with one click” for the next task. Featuring round-the-clock inspection, full coverage deployment, and comprehensive application, and supported by a hangar management and control system with technologies such as precise takeoff and landing, transmission line inspection and thermal imaging, and real-time image transmission, the system enables autonomous inspections of all substation, transmission, and distribution equipment within the grid. Compared with manual patrols, this approach cuts inspection time by 90%, addresses the previous challenges of poor adaptability and cumbersome defect monitoring in drone inspections, and significantly improves the quality and efficiency of equipment operation and maintenance. Currently, a single flight can cover an area of about 15 square kilometers, making it nearly 10 times more efficient than manual inspection.

With electricity consumption peaking in summer and grid loads hitting new highs, power lines are more susceptible to faults caused by high temperatures, thunderstorms, and other weather conditions. The introduction of drone hangars has made inspections faster and more accurate.

“During the hottest days in July, the drone flew six times a day and identified three overheating hazards in equipment. It would have been impossible to cover that much ground manually,” said the operation and maintenance team leader. Statistics show that since the start of the peak summer power demand period, 187 autonomous inspections have been completed, detecting 43 defects such as conductor damage and insulator deterioration, with a defect detection accuracy of over 98%.

“The drone hangar not only saves manpower but, more importantly, allows hidden dangers to be detected in time to prevent outages,” said Chen Hongquan, an operation and maintenance staff member at State Grid Jinhua Power Supply Company. Moving forward, the company plans to add three more drone hangars to establish a county-wide “15-minute inspection network,” further enhancing the intelligent level of power grid operation and maintenance.

(Xie Weihong)