Drones are the stuff Hollywood spy thrillers are made of. For Indian power sector however it will script a new story with drones being deployed to cut costs and improve efficiency.
Heralding a new technological jump in the power transmission sector, state-owned Power Grid will now use drones to monitor project development in critical areas. Senior officials in power ministry said Power Grid has already received approval to deploy drones from a committee that includes representatives from the ministries of defence, home affairs, and power, and allied departments.
Power Grid confirmed the development but did not give details, citing secrecy in the matter. Government officials said among the private companies Sterlite Grid has also applied for using drones in monitoring its projects. Sterlite is the largest private operator of independent power transmission systems in the country.
Drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle with photo and video recording which is used by defence services across world for both monitoring and combat. Apart from being used extensively in movie shoots and video recording, it has now caught the fancy of other sectors — a restaurant recently used it for pizza delivery and e-commerce players are toying with the idea of drones to deliver orders. So much for meeting targets that an e-commerce giant has requested Indian government to use them to delivering products. Drones are now even used in grand Indian weddings to aerially record the function, by private metrological agencies, forest and agricultural research bodies.
Power transmission companies which usually have to build infrastructure in inaccessible areas have applied to reduce their maintenance cost. Sector experts said that with increasing thrust on delivering transmission projects in time, developers are increasingly deploying aerial technologies to save time.
The ministry of power has initiated an incentive scheme for transmission projects which get commissioned ahead of schedule. The government in July 2015 issued an order that transmission projects won under tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) and those awarded to Power Grid for system strengthening would start getting transmission charge from the date of commercial operations, even if it is ahead of schedule.
PGCIL is likely to use drones for its project in difficult terrains, said an executive requesting anonymity. “The company is likely to experiment drones at two-three sites for now mostly in hilly areas and in north-east regions,” he said adding that drones is a much better option than hiring a helicopter for aerial monitoring.
As per publicly available information, cost of drone ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 500 crores, depending on the technology and the height that it will be used. A typical transmission tower is of 100 meters height from the ground. Sector executives said drone would be used to record the proceedings at the construction site and take pictures during any emergency to facilitate speedy redressal.
As more inaccessible areas are covered under the power grid, new technology is being experimented for efficient and speedy construction of projects. For instance, Sterlite Grid tied up with US-based Burns & McDonnell to implement a transmission line between Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir with the help of heli-crane. It is in discussions with US based aviation company to hire heli-crane for any Indian transmission project for the first time.
Drones for that matter are catching up in other infrastructure sectors as well. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) under Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and North East Centre for Technology Application and Research (NECTAR), Department of Science and Technology for use of spatial technology for monitoring and managing National Highways.
NECTAR uses ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)’ for acquiring aerial images for infrastructure planning. The use and benefits of unmanned aerial vehicle technology will be useful in monitoring, construction progress, road asset management, feasibility report and DPR preparation, immediate assessment and remedy of problematic spots etc.
