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Powerline, Transmission Line & Substation Inspection with Drone and Mobile LiDAR Scanners
Powerline, transmission line and substation inspection with Drone and Terrestrial LiDAR is an effective way to identify potential issues before they impact your electrical infrastructure. LiDAR sensors can capture multiple echoes and provide accurate location and coordinates of electrical facilities, ground objects, and vegetation. Using LiDAR can also improve inspection efficiency.
Benefits for LiDAR Transmission Line Inspection
Powerline, transmission line and substation inspection is a necessary step in power distribution infrastructure maintenance. It prevents outages by monitoring the infrastructure and identifying issues that could compromise the integrity of power lines. Power outages cause massive economic losses and threaten the natural ecosystem. In addition to short circuits, powerline inspection can also detect other power distribution anomalies that could threaten power quality.
Aerial systems equipped with LiDAR capture data from target areas of powerline, transmission line and substation infrastructure. These data are processed to create a 3D map & model that shows the distances between powerlines and surrounding vegetation. This mapping data allows operators to focus their efforts on the areas that pose the greatest threat to power lines. Because LiDAR is fast and accurate, operators can use it to detect sagging wires, dangerous trees, and other potential hazards.
Aerial mapping is another option for powerline inspection that is cost-effective and saves time. An aerial survey can map up to 50 km of transmission lines in a single day, saving grid operators time on the ground and reducing labor costs by up to 50%. Aerial mapping uses a full-frame camera and in-house algorithms to produce lidar-quality data.
Lidar technology has the ability to visualize powerlines and identify problems that can affect their safety. It is used to inspect high-voltage powerlines and detect any problems before they cause damage to the electrical network. It can also detect the presence of vegetation that could pose a risk to power lines. The use of lidar technology can help utility companies to minimize the costs and risks of power line inspection.
LiDAR power line inspection can help grid operators to map wire profiles, which is particularly important in regions with high traffic density and large machinery movement. These inspections also help grid operators to react to potential problems before they cause damage to the network. A single powerline span can be inspected in as little as ten minutes with a single technician or two.
Drones equipped with LiDAR can survey target areas and generate a 3D map that shows the distance between powerlines and vegetation. This allows operators to avoid clearing large areas and focus their efforts on the most dangerous areas. LiDAR is also used to detect sagging wires and potential tree fall.
LiDAR Hardware Equipment for Powerline Inspection - Terrestrial Mobile LiDAR Scanning System
Comparing to the aerial LiDAR scanning system, the terrestrial LiDAR scanning equipment, such as backpack LiDAR scanning system or mobile LiDAR scanning system are closer to the powerline, which can deliver more intensive point cloud, and easier access to some locations, for example, the distribution line around suburbs. While the aerial LiDAR scanning system will have some path planning, flight control and safety concerns, especially, whent the distribution powerlines are on the streets or residential area. At these area, the backpack LiDAR and vehicle-mounted LiDAR system can have better field of view and the same time they don’t bring extra safety risk during scanning and raise residents’ privacy concerns.
Comparing to the aerial LiDAR scanning system, the terrestrial LiDAR scanning equipment, such as backpack LiDAR scanning system or mobile LiDAR scanning system are closer to the powerline, which can deliver more intensive point cloud, and easier access to some locations, for example, the distribution line around suburbs. While the aerial LiDAR scanning system will have some path planning, flight control and safety concerns, especially, whent the distribution powerlines are on the streets or residential area. At these area, the backpack LiDAR and vehicle-mounted LiDAR system can have better field of view and the same time they don’t bring extra safety risk during scanning and raise residents’ privacy concerns. Learn more about the case studies with terrestrial LiDAR scanning equipment for powerline survey.
Utility line modelling - Bendigo & Lorne with DGC50 - Backpack LiDAR Scanner
Project information
Location: North Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Total length of powerline: about 3km;
Number of poles surveyed: 65
Site scanning duration: 1 day;
Scanning equipment: LiBackpack DGC50
Scanning purpose: distribution line modelling for NBN network;
Project information
Location: Lorne, Victoria, Australia
Total length of powerline: about 10km;
Number of poles surveyed: 210
Site scanning duration: 3 days;
Scanning purpose: distribution line modelling for NBN network;
LiDAR Solutions conducted the site scanning with DGC50 for designated routes and poles, and LiDAR Solutions also delivered the classified LiDAR point cloud data, including classes for ground points, vegetation, building, pole structure, conductor and communication service line. This allows our client to input this data into Neara for further design and assessment for installation NBN along the exsiting assets.
Click HERE to download the sample of Data deliverables.
Learn more about using Neara for Maximize LiDAR’s potential with 3D engineering-grade models
Powerline encrochment assessment - Flemington with LiMobile Vehicle-mounted LiDAR Scanner
Project information
Location: Flemington, Victoria, Australia
Total length of powerline: about 7.5km;
Site scanning duration: 1 hour;
Scanning equipment: LiMobile
Scanning purpose: distribution line encrochment assessment;
LiDAR Solutions conducted the site scanning with LiMobile encrochment assessment. Within 1 hour scanning time, we are able to collect more than 7km LiDAR data of Powerline, and with post processing of LiPowerline, we are able to generate an encrochment report, including the information:
- Address;
- Coordinates;
- Dangerous point type, vegetation or building;
- Horizontal, vertical and ground clearance;
- The photos of dangerous points.
With this information, the powerline maintenance team is able to plan and execute site trimming operations to keep the powerlines safe. The screenshots of the report:
Solutions for Transmission Line LiDAR Inspection
LiDAR Hardware Equipment for Powerline Inspection - Drone & Helicopter Platform
LiDAR Hardware Equipment for Powerline Inspection - UAV or Drone Platform
LiAir 220N - Suitable for powerline with Wider Corridor
Key Features
High Scan Rate
1720,000 pts (Single Return )
,440,000 pts (Dual Return )
Better FoV
360° (Horizontal)
40° (Vertical)
High Commpatibility
This lightweight 3D surveying and
mapping payload was designed with DJI’s Matrice 600 Pro & DJI
M300 RTK series platforms.
point Cloud Density Chart - 220N
LiEagle - Suitable for Long Distance Inspections
Key Features
Refined inspection mode
Collaborate with visible light and infrared operations, single-machine refined daily patrol of 150-200 kilometers
Quick inspection mode
Single-machine daily patrol of more than 300 kilometers powerline
High data quality
- The original data collected by the equipment has less ghosting and no broken lines
- The RTK function can be customized to obtain accurate positioning information in real time;
point Cloud Density Chart - LiEagle
LiDAR Software for Powerline Inspection
LiAcquire - Airborne LiDAR Control Software
- Control laser scanners, cameras and POS system data collection.
- Monitor the collection process, including the size of the collected data, GPS satellite status, IMU status, etc.
- Supports strip cutting, point cloud calculation, point cloud measurement, and data playback.
- Support starting the RTK of the device to solve the point cloud data in real time.
LiGeoreference - Drone LiDAR point cloud solution software
- It supports multiple types of laser data, various combined navigation data and visible light image data.
Guided operation, - Support parameter memory, export and import, easy parameter configuration.
- High-efficiency calculation speed, supports multiple output results.
LiPowerline - laser LiDAR power line inspection software
Green Valley International is a leading provider of turnkey lidar surveying systems and 3d mapping technologies. Lipowerline processed a total of fifteen thousand kilometres of data live power line, provides data post-processing and analysis tools for working with lidar point clouds and high-resolution imagery.
Through the processing and analysis of massive point cloud data, LiPowerline can quickly and accurately extract the information of dangerous targets in the power channel, and provide analysis and prediction for the safe operation of power under comprehensive simulated working conditions.
- Visual editing of terabyte point cloud data.
- Machine Learning Point Cloud Classification.
- Accurately calculate the amount of dangerous trees to be removed.
- Simulated working conditions, scientific early warning.
Key Features of LiPowerline
Powerline Inspection LiDAR Point Cloud Classification and Dangerous Points Dection
It can automatically classify the transmission tower and power line points with its deep learning algorithms. What’s more the software provides both 2d and 3d profile tools to inspect and edit classification results. Lipowerline is also able to perform real-time working condition of analysis, detect danger points, and measure powerline clearances and spec scissor crossings, monitor individual trees and carry out tree fall analyses.
Transmission Line LiDAR Point Cloud Data Analysis
Interactive point cloud vectorization tools included in Lipowerline allow for the creation of 3d models, but then serve as inputs to simulations that output descriptions of the impact user defined temperature wind and ice loadings have on the Sagan’s way of specific conductor types. The vectorized point cloud model is created in Lipowerline can also be used when analyzing sag and phase spacing of powerlines to monitor the status of individual wires and conductors or measure tower inclinations and height differences between cross arms of electrical transmission towers.
Customized Flight Planning
Lipowerline also contains an easy-to-use tool set for constructing UAV flight routes from previously collected point cloud data. This unique software feature is designed to meet the flight planning needs of pilots and drone operators who must inspect specific electrical infrastructure assets, such as transmission towers and conductors for signs of the damage or failure. Around these images can capture key asset components targeted for an inspection such as pylons insulators power line fittings.
