PECO uses drones to survey storm damage
PECO uses drone technology during June derecho to identify damage, speed restoration
When a powerful derecho weather system moved through the region in June, it left about 550,000 PECO customers in the dark. To help in its restoration response, the utility used drone technology. In one specific repair project in the Phoenixville-area — the use of drones dramatically reduced the project completion time.
A derecho is a line of intense, widespread and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms. Characterized by damaging winds of 57.5 mph or greater, a derecho’s winds extend over a path at least 250 miles long.
The system that moved through southeastern Pennsylvania June 3 brought heavy rain and high winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour — resulting in downed trees and tree limbs and damaged utility poles and electric equipment — leading to the power outages. It was a multi-day restoration for PECO, according to spokesman Greg Smore, who said 90% of PECO customers impacted were restored by June 5, the rest by June 9.
PECO has been using drones as part of its operations for about 18 months, according to Jason Smith, PECO’s supervisor of transmission. He said the technology is primarily used to for reliability inspections on the distribution system to identify and prevent reliability errors.
“Every year we have to fly onefifth of the system to do a comprehensive inspection. Currently, 25% is now being flown by helicopter, the rest by drone,” he said.
Smith added that the company has been looking to incorporate the drones more in storm restoration, and the June derecho was a good use of the technology.
“It was the perfect tool to get a survey of a large area in a short amount of time. In this storm we deployed the drones in cluster areas to get a good overview of the damage,” he said. “The faster we can get the information and get it back to operations, the faster they can make decisions on crew and material needs.”
Smith added that using the drones is less intrusive than having a helicopter fly over an impacted area. He added that the long rights-of-way and transmission
towers that are 100-feet tall make drone inspections a good use of the technology.
Specifically during the derecho restoration, the drones were used to assess damage. Crews were able to quickly identify issues across the region from the air rather than patrolling the area from the ground, which helped speed up restoration times for customers, according to the company.
“This storm wasn’t just run of mill thunderstorm, the damage was very extensive. We were able to get a good snapshot of what was damaged and to see the extent of the outage,” Smith said.
While assessing damage from the storm with a drone, a PECO crew found a tree that had taken down three 700-foot span of wire that crossed the Schuylkill River near Phoenixville.
Teams from across the company considered several options
for restringing the lines across the river, which included the use of a boat or a helicopter — traditionally how a project like that is handled, according to Smith.
It was determined that the best option would be to be to have a drone fly the lines across the river, he said.
Crews first did a test in an open field to make sure the process would work, according to the company. The lines were then flown by drone between two team members in bucket trucks. As the drone reached each crew, they would disconnect the line from the drone and attach it to the pole until the process was complete.
Smith, who was the drone pilot for the June project, said using drones significantly reduced the project time — from a potential multi-day effort to about 10 hours.
“We found out about it at 12 p.m. and we were set up onsite by 2:30 p.m. — a 2.5 hour response time versus the potential of waiting for a day for a boat and helicopter (before repairs could begin). We had the wire up by 10 p.m.,” he said.
Smith said the project was a little stressful, because it’s not something the company does every day. He said that PECO crews worked on a similar project in Puerto Rico while deployed as part of power restoration efforts following Hurricane Maria but, “it was on a smaller scale.” Smith added it was the first time for a project like this on a PECO project.
“It was cool to be part of,” he said of the recent project.
PECO has two drone teams of two employees on each team, according to Smith, adding that each of them is a Federal Aviation Administration licensed drone pilot.
During the derecho restoration, Smith said the drone teams flew 75 miles of transmission and distributions lines. To put that in perspective — Smith said it is the equivalent of two marathons. Typically, inspections and storm damage assessments require crews to cover large distances across a variety of terrains.
Smith said there is also a cost savings to using drones for damage assessment.
“The cost of one drone for assessment is about one-fifth the cost of renting a helicopter for a day. The cost savings is tremendous,” he said.
PECO provides energy to more than 1.6 million electric customers and more than 532,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania, including nearly 1 million electric customers in Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.