Utilities could use drones to help deal with mass outages: EPRI

Houston (Platts)--13May2013/612 am EDT/1012 GMT

The use of drones has become commonplace in the "war on terror," but future applications could include helping US utilities react and respond to large-scale power outages caused by massive storms like last year's Hurricane Sandy.

Matthew Olearczyk of the Electric Power Research Institute said Sunday on the "Platts Energy Week" TV show that a utility's response to a storm can be slowed by a lack of information about what's happening in the field.

"When you consider the large storms that we've seen in the last couple of years, the damage that happens on such a wide scale, the utilities are experiencing what I would call similar to the 'fog of war,'" he said. "There's so much that's happened they need to get a clear picture of that and it's hard to do."

Olearczyk said that instead of sending out work crews to assess damage in an area, a drone could be sent. That would allow utilities to react much quicker and prioritize its work in an emergency, he said.

The technology is evolving, but short of being ready for industry use. "The utilities are not able to use ... drones because the technology has not been completely proven or applied to our industry," he said.

The EPRI is looking to see what can be done, Olearczyk said, and is working closely with the FAA, which controls the airspace. He said the FAA's main concerns at this stage are safety and privacy.

Olearczyk said drones would probably fly at an altitude of no more than 80 feet and that all drones would need to be flown by licensed FAA pilots.

He said a service provider would probably own the technology, which would then been deployed by a utility in advance of a storm.

"If we know when a storm's going to occur, we could deploy these assets ahead of time, the storm might come through, then we could fly over the damaged area, assess it, capture everything we need, land and be done with it," he said.

Olearczyk said the EPRI would be doing significant testing this summer to see which technology works best and what works best for the industry.

"At the end of this year we should have a very clear picture on what technologies we should apply for storm-damage assessment after the big storms," he said.

With the technology still developing and the need for FAA rulemaking to allow for drone use, Olearczyk said it could be a few years before drones are in the field.

Platts Energy Week airs on Sundays on WUSA, a CBS affiliate in Washington, as well as KUHT, a PBS affiliate in Houston, and on other PBS stations in the US. The program is also available on the web at http://www.plattsenergyweektv.com.

--Jason Lindquist, jason.lindquist@platts.com

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