Virginia Natural Gas to inspect natural gas infrastructure with UAVs
Natural gas service provider, Virginia Natural Gas (VNG), has announced its use of aerial drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – to perform equipment inspections on its pipeline infrastructure.
The UAVs will begin flights across Hampton Roads as well as northern James and New Kent Counties for various operations.
These include inspections of critical infrastructure, right-of-way assessments and the inspection of over 5500 miles of gas pipeline.
The natural gas company will employ self-dispatched Mavic 2 Pro drones. allowing engineers and asset protection and construction managers to use UAVs as part of their daily work.
In the past, traditional methods for pipeline inspection have been slower, manually intensive, expensive and the cause of safety concerns.
The drones will be equipped with a visual or infrared camera to be used for navigating and patrolling a segment of pipeline, identifying and capturing images or videos of areas of interest at pre-defined timings and returns.
Dean Barefield, unmanned aerial services programme manager at Southern Company, stated: “We see parallels between our electric and gas utilities and the ability to integrate that technology.
“The addition of drones to the day-to-day operations at VNG will offer a cost-effective platform for pipeline inspection while increasing efficiency and safety due to their availability, range and ease of operation.”
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UAVs by a team of three
A team of three trained “pilots” will fly the drones.
Having obtained their pilot certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration, they hope to have the programme up in the air soon to help them see from above what they can’t on foot.
Zack Gravely, asset protection specialist and one of the new drone pilots, stated: “Drones are ideally suited for inspecting equipment because they can safely and quickly deliver high-quality photos and videos of our system in a way that can minimise environmental impact and inconvenience for customers along any rights-of-way. This technology will be another tool in our arsenal.”
A second member of the team, Randall ‘Ness’ Peacock, construction supervisor at VNG, expressed his excitement about the programme when he first heard about it two years ago.
“I appreciated the opportunity to be part of the initial programme and combine my love of flying while further developing my career,” said Peacock. “To be on the ground level of this programme and help define what it will look like for VNG and for our peers was something I knew I wanted to be involved with.”
Kenny LeSueur, engineer and quality assurance specialist, rounds out the pilot project team and will be responsible for developing a programme to best incorporate drone technology.
“Drones will give us the flexibility to perform a variety of higher quality inspections due to their ability to fly closer to pipelines and safety of operation. For example, when we inspect bridges, we will no longer have to be close to the water source, such as rivers or streams, so it will increase the safety for those in the field as well.”
VNG will be one of the first natural gas utilities in the state to use UAVs while also conducting a pilot program for its sister companies in Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee.
The announcement builds on a program already established in 2015 by Southern Company as VNG attempts to develop best practices and procedures on how to best use the new technology in the utility space.
