Sector Snapshot: Drones in Energy and Utilities

SECTOR

Drones in Energy and Utilities

Sector Snapshot: Drones in Energy and Utilities

By Scott Howe, Commercial UAV News

The electric power transmission grid of the contiguous United States consists of 120,000 miles (190,000 km) of lines operated by 500 companies.

An estimated 16% of major oil and gas companies globally have integrated drones into their visual inspection protocols.

(Optelos)

Energy/Utilities

industry

has the highest use of drone technology among leading industries

(Drone Industry Insights)

Drones used within Power Generation & Distribution alone will become an industry worth US $4.4 billion by 2030.

(Drone Industry Insights)

The drones in energy market could increase from USD 178.36 million in 2022 to USD 699.5 billion by 2030.

(SkyQuest)

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY IS COMPRISED of some of the most crucial pieces of infrastructure for any country. From regular maintenance to disaster response, electrical grids and energy supplies need to be maintained. This critical need has highlighted the need for advanced technologies to carry out inspections, identify hazards, and come back from interruptions. This need has accelerated the use of drones in the energy and utility sector – and the growth shows no sign of slowing.

Early on, energy and utility companies saw the potential of drone technology to perform inspections, gather data, and monitor operations in ways that would save time and money and keep employees safe. Today, energy and utilities firms are finding new ways to integrate UAVs into their work. These companies see uncrewed technology as an essential tool for meeting the increasing demand for energy worldwide and addressing critical safety and environmental issues.

In this “industry snapshot,” Commercial UAV News will explore the state of the energy and utilities industry, describe how companies are using drone technology, and look to the future of uncrewed systems in this vast and growing sector.

GROWTH AND COMPLEXITY IN ENERGY AND UTILITIES TODAY

Utility networks are complex, can be challenging to access, and comprise many thousands of pieces of infrastructure and miles of transmission lines. In the contiguous United States alone, over 120,000 miles (190,000 km) of power lines are operated by 500 companies.

According to the International Energy Agency, global electricity demand is expected to rise at a faster rate over the next three years, growing by an average of 3.4% annually through 2026.

What’s driving this growth? Experts cite an increased demand for many forms of energy, especially electricity, and growing investments in clean and renewable systems as major factors. These drivers will certainly lead to continued expansion of the industry, and significant changes in how the sector is structured.

The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2023 describes “an energy system in 2030 in which clean technologies play a significantly greater role than today.” The report said that there will be “almost 10 times as many electric cars on the road worldwide; solar photovoltaic generating more electricity than the entire U.S. power system does currently; renewables’ share of the global electricity mix nearing 50%, up from around 30% today; heat pumps and other electric heating systems outselling fossil fuel boilers globally; and three times as much investment going into new offshore wind projects than into new coal- and gas-fired power plants.”

Also, Deloitte’s Renewable Energy Industry Outlook reported that “The Energy Information Administration expects renewable deployment to grow by 17% to 42 GW in 2024 and account for almost a quarter of electricity generation.”

All this will happen as the world continues to rely heavily on traditional energy sources, like oil and gas. Statista reported that, in 2022, “the total revenue of the United States’ oil and gas industry came to 332.9 billion U.S. dollars. That was a considerable increase from the previous year, when U.S. oil and gas had a total revenue of 211.2 billion U.S. dollars.”

Moreover, Deloitte’s Oil and Gas Industry Outlook stated that global oil demand was “on track to grow by 2.3 mbpd in 2023 and cross the 100 mbpd mark for the first time in history.”

WHERE DRONES ARE BEING PUT TO WORK

To help meet worldwide demand and keep operations running smoothly, energy and utilities companies use uncrewed systems for many different tasks. These firms deploy drones to inspect power lines, pipelines, oil rigs, transfer stations, solar farms, hydro dams, windmills, and more. They are fitting drones with sophisticated cameras and sensors to collect millions of data points that are used to assess current conditions and help plan for needed maintenance and upgrades. Moreover, they are using drones to perform tasks once performed by human employees—tasks that are time-consuming, expensive, and, in many cases, extremely dangerous.

“Drones are playing a pivotal role in transforming operations within the energy and utilities sector,” said Cameron Chell, President and CEO of Draganfly Innovations. “Equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and imaging technology, drones, particularly sophisticated models like our flagship Commander 3 XL, capture granular data, empowering our customers with the necessary data to assess asset integrity, detect anomalies, and strategize maintenance initiatives.”

Drones are used in the Energy Sector for:

A report by Optelos stated that “As of Q1 2023, an estimated 16% of major oil and gas companies globally have integrated drones into their visual inspection protocols, with another 74% indicating an intent to integrate drone inspection into their programs in the future.” Also, a study from Drone Industry Insights found that “the Energy/ Utilities industry has the highest use of drone technology” among leading industries, and “drones used within Power Generation & Distribution alone will become an industry worth US$ 4.4 billion by 2030.”

A SkyQuest industry forecast predicts even greater expansion, stating that the drones in energy sector market could increase from USD 178.36 million in 2022 to USD 699.5 billion by 2030.

Drones Boost Return on Investment for Energy and Utilities Operations

Return on investment is the biggest reason many of these firms are turning to drones. Simply put, drones can perform inspection, monitoring, and data collection tasks at a fraction of the cost of using helicopters, trucks, or people on foot. Factor in the increased speed of performing these tasks with drones and the cost savings associated with improved safety, and the adoption of drones becomes a “no brainer” for the industry.

The infrastructure inspections firm Constellation Clearsight compared the costs of using helicopters and drones for inspections. It found that “a fully equipped helicopter will cost more than $2M, while an equally compatible drone will come in the range of $250k or less.”

When considering operating costs, including the use of “a highly trained pilot and flight crew, fuel, daily maintenance expenses, insurance, and mobilization charges” along with “processing, analyzing, and scoring data into actionable insights,” the company found that an “average drone suitable for transmission inspections is about a tenth (or less) of the cost of a helicopter.”

A 2023 Commercial UAV News article cited several examples to show how dramatic it can be for energy and utilities companies and organizations that use drones.

For example:

• Electric utility ComEd used a spraying drone to apply herbicide in Forest View, Illinois, to avoid vegetation growth onto the nearby power lines, which could have caused outages or service disruptions. The drone deployment process took around 45 minutes using 0.75 gallons of herbicide, whereas manual workers would have taken approximately two days and 8 gallons of herbicide solution to complete the job.

• Severn Trent Water, a regional, state-owned water authority based in the Midlands, UK, is using drone fleets to improve their utility inspection processes. Drone technology helped the company save around $950,000 in 2020 and doubled it to around $1.8M the following year.

• In 2020, Aerospec Technologies turned to drones to inspect solar farms. They found that a manually piloted drone can collect data 10 times faster than a technician on the ground with 97% accuracy. They also found that autonomous flights are nearly four times faster than manually piloted drones, provide more reliable data, and reduce human error. Combining money saved on technician’s wages with performance gains from proactive maintenance, Aerospec believes regular aerial thermographic drone inspections allow O&M managers to save approximately $1,916 per MW per inspection compared to traditional field walks.

• According to Flyability, companies implementing wind turbine drone inspections often realize a 20%-25% reduction in inspection expenses. As reported by Reuters Events, the per-turbine cost for manual inspections ranges from $3,000 down to $225 in parts of Eastern Europe, whereas a pilot-operated drone inspection can be as little as $300-$500 per turbine.

DRONES IN ACTION IN THE ENERGY AND UTILITIES INDUSTRY

Here is a look at some of the many ways the Energy and Utilities sector has embraced drone technology over the past year—and how uncrewed systems are delivering real value.

Beyond Visual Line of Site Waiver Enables Dramatic Improvements in Utilities Inspections

Last year, Phoenix Air Unmanned, a U.S. aerial drone services provider, received a first-of-its-kind authorization from the FAA to perform inspection, patrol, and survey beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations across the United States. For this work, Phoenix Air Unmanned is using SwissDrones’ SDO 50 V2 UAV. Designed to replace pilot-operated helicopters and minimize risks, the SDO 50 V2 is a twin-rotor UAV with an autonomy of over 3 hours and a payload capacity between 30 and 70 pounds.

They found that, compared to similar-sized aircraft, drones:

Increased Government Investment in Uncrewed Technology for Energy Operations

In July 2023, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) approved the first phase of funding for a $37.2 million drone program for utility inspections. Under the five-year plan, NYPA, the nation’s largest state utility, will expand and formalize its use of robotics to enhance safety, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and advance clean energy initiatives.

While the initiative will use drones to potentially reduce costs and improve data accuracy, Peter Kalaitzidis, the Power Authority’s Robotics Program Manager, said the primary focus will be safety and efficiency.

“The program centers around minimizing the exposure of personnel to hazardous energized environments,” he explained.

By leveraging unmanned systems, inspections can be conducted remotely, and in some cases eliminate the need for individuals to physically enter dangerous areas. This approach not only protects the safety of personnel but can help reduce the risk of accidents and potential injuries.”

“By leveraging unmanned systems, inspections can be conducted remotely, and in some cases eliminate the need for individuals to physically enter dangerous areas. This approach not only protects the safety of personnel but can help reduce the risk of accidents and potential injuries.”

How Uncrewed Aircraft Can Monitor Underground Oil and Gas Distribution Networks

For decades, traditional aviation has been central to the services private companies provide to the oil and gas industry. From offshore rig servicing and crew transportation to real-time monitoring of remote installations, oil executives and field managers have relied on helicopters and airplanes to map, transport, and service their

operations. However, Peru’s RCP Ingenieros has embarked on an ambitious program to add multiple uncrewed platforms, both multirotor and fixed wing, to provide fast, reliable, and environmentally friendly service to the oil and gas industry.

“There was a large demand for monitoring services of buried ducts that traverse large portions of the country, from the point of origin to the various ports where the raw material is shipped to the different processing plants,” according to RCP president Ruben Contreras. “Using traditional surveying methods is slow, and the alternative at the time of crewed aircraft is too costly and grossly inadequate for the isolated areas in which these companies operate.”

“We took a big risk by bringing drones to the table in our meetings with the oil companies, but to our surprise, they were very enthusiastic on the savings and the possibility of reducing their carbon footprint by using electric aerial platforms,” Contreras said.

“We were given large corridors of underground ducts to monitor with various platforms. We had to use multirotors for certain functions and also fixed wing aircrafts with longer flying time for the most remote and dangerous areas.”

Using traditional surveying methods is slow, and the alternative at the time of crewed aircraft is too costly and grossly inadequate for the isolated areas in which these companies operate.”

WHAT IS NEXT FOR DRONES IN ENERGY AND CONSTRUCTION?

Given the proven ability of drones to increase efficiency, accuracy, safety, and profitability, it’s safe to assume that more and more energy and utilities companies will adopt the technology in the years to come. Using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related systems to further improve operations will drive much of that adoption.

Machine Learning Can Aid Drone-based Inspections

Daan Arscott, Data Collection Lead at Niricson, said that his company has been involved in more than 50 energy-related data collection projects using drones over the past three years. That work has enabled the company to “create a baseline of large infrastructure assets that has quantification data associated with it, so year over year, we’re able to go back to a site and rescan the entire structure,” he said. “We can then compare the two data sets to monitor changes through time. Accurate change detection is the real value added with our solution.”

Central to this work is the integration of machine learning. This technology, he asserted, “allows us to be more efficient and cost-effective in comparison to traditional inspection processes.” Arscott explained that, “These systems let us move one step beyond just digitizing your assets. Sure, it is great to have a 3D model of your structure, but someday, somebody is going to have to pour over that entire structure manually and try to identify all the cracks and deficiencies for a proper engineering assessment. Niricson automates this process for a much faster and higher quality assessment.”

A report by the International Energy Agency said it is “unsurprising that the energy sector is taking early steps to harness the power of AI to boost efficiency and accelerate innovation. The technology is uniquely placed to support the simultaneous growth of smart grids and the massive quantities of data they generate.” The report explained, “Smart meters produce and send several thousand times more data points to utilities than their analogue predecessors. New devices for monitoring grid power flows funnel more than an order of magnitude more data to operators than the technologies they are replacing. And the global fleet of wind turbines is estimated to produce more than 400 billion data points per year.”

Based on these promising numbers, many in the industry are predicting explosive growth. A report by Indigo Advisory Group predicted a market of some $13 billion in AI in the energy sector in the coming years. At present, Indigo said, there are “now 100 vendors with AI solutions embedded in their products, serving more than 50 possible use cases, from grid maintenance to load forecasting.”

However, for the industry to continue growing, regulatory changes must take place, “As we look ahead, we are hopeful for the development of standardized regulatory frameworks that strike a harmonious balance between safety imperatives and fostering innovation,” said Draganfly’s Cameron Chell. “These frameworks will play a crucial role in providing clarity and instilling confidence among industry stakeholders.”

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, integrating drone technology into the energy and utilities sector has become pivotal in meeting the industry’s growing demands and challenges. From routine inspections to emergency response, drones offer unparalleled advantages in terms of efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness. As energy needs continue to rise and the sector undergoes significant transformations toward cleaner and more sustainable practices, drones will undoubtedly play an increasingly crucial role. With ongoing advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, the potential for drones to revolutionize operations and drive innovation in the energy and utilities industry is vast. As we look to the future, it’s clear that drones will remain at the forefront of modernizing infrastructure, ensuring reliability, and promoting a greener energy landscape.