BVLOS flight performs powerline inspections in Australian first

Drone manufacturer and solutions provider Carbonix has become the first Australian company to fly its drones Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLoS) completing a mission with SA Power Networks to inspect 150km of powerlines in remote South Australia.

The BVLoS mission, which was approved by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), paves the way for Carbonix’s drones to inspect South Australia’s electricity distribution network of more than 180,000 square kilometres.

Carbonix and SA Power Networks have been working together to radically advance the use of long-range un-crewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in aerial inspection work on remote electricity distribution network assets for the past 18 months.

Currently, inspections are done by conventional crewed aircraft (helicopters and light planes) or ground crews.

According to SA Power Networks in a release, the operational and environmental benefits of replacing these with Carbonix drones would see an up to 80% reduction in operating cost and up to 98% reduction in CO2 output while improving safety and efficiency.

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With drones more easily deployed than conventional aircraft, as well as accelerating asset inspection cycles, their adoption would also improve response times to outages, fault finding, bushfire preparedness, maintenance work and planning and documentation of line re-stringing.

This would support the reliability of electricity supply, particularly for the 30% of SA Power Networks customers living in regional and remote areas of the state.

Commented Carbonix CEO Philip van der Burg on the announcement, which marks a commercial watershed for the Australian drones industry: “This is such an exciting time for the drone industry and for the energy industry.

“We’ve addressed the risks and barriers, both regulatory and technical, and proven the capability. Long-range drone adoption means improved safety, faster response times and reduced carbon footprint for companies like SA Power Networks. We’re thrilled to have partnered with them to achieve this Australian first.”

Added head of corporate affairs for SA Power Networks, Paul Roberts: “We rely on aerial inspections to be able to meet inspection cycles.

“Our crews also drive about 20 million kilometres annually patrolling and maintaining our vast network. Being able to deploy over the horizon drone patrols will drive greater efficiency in our asset management program and provide genuine safety benefits for our people and community.”