A neighborhood of lush trees is always a welcoming site. But when these trees become overgrown and get to close to power lines a dangerous situation can arise. Trees and their branches that are growing near power lines can cause fires and outages. When storms happen, branches can break, landing on the lines, causing them to collapse. In fact, overgrown tree branches are one of the leading causes of power failures each year. To prevent this from happening power companies have teams that inspect for vegetation overgrowth year round. It is a long and tedious job, and too often areas are missed due to the time constraints involved with the inspections. As technology progresses and FAA restrictions are lifted, more and more power companies are turning to drones to help them in this effort.

Headquartered in Merrillville, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) is the largest natural gas and second largest electrical distribution company in Indiana. They provide natural gas for more that 821,000 customers and electrical power for more than 468,000 customers across the northern third of the state. As stated on their website, “As part of our commitment our customers and communities, we’re investing millions each year to provide safe, reliable natural gas and electric service.” Earlier this year they announced that one of the ways they intend to better provide service to the communities would be through the use of drones to inspect power lines for vegetation overgrowth. NIPSCO hired Orbital Technical Solutions to conduct the drone program.

Orbital Technical Solutions (OTS) is a technology firm that specializes in using drones for the assessment of infrastructure problems in the industries of energy, mining, metals, chemicals, and manufacturing. They were first founded in 1969 in Pittsburgh, PA. Today they have additional offices in Philadelphia, PA, Detroit, MI, Chicago, IL, Saint Louis, MO, and Houston, TX. OTS’s “Advanced Data Collection solutions reduce costs, minimize worker exposure to safety hazards, and eliminate plant outages to perform aerial surveys and inspections of high rise, underground or difficult to access assets.” This advanced technology system includes drones and remote controlled robots that can fit in a 6″ diameter pipe, handheld and drone mounted IR cameras with 13X optical zoom high powered optics, LIDAR, sediment mapping, and photogrammetry.

Along with their advanced data collection capabilities, the drones OTS deploys are built with safety in mind. Though high powered, the drones are small and light weight with redundancy safety measures. The drones are encased in a plastic globe like frame that protects the drone and it’s surroundings if it were to bump into anything. The drone can be used indoors and outdoors, fit into small spaces, and access hard to reach places. The combination of having the right tools and experience made OTS the perfect partners for NIPSCO’s drone inspection goals. OTS Tweeted, “Orbital Technical Solutions is excited to work with NIPSCO to conduct aerial inspections of their electric infrastructure. This project will collect valuable data to help increase the reliability of their electrical services while keeping utility workers safe from hazards associated with performing these inspections via bucket trucks. Orbital Engineering, Inc., and Orbital Technological Solutions look forward to other opportunities with our strategic partner NIPSCO as UAS are utilized for other visual, thermal, mapping and LiDAR applications.”

The drone inspections are underway in South Hammond, LaPorte, and Michigan City and are set to continue through the first 3 months of the new year covering more than 200 miles of power lines. The drones will be flown by licensed experts from OTS accompanied by NIPSCO inspectors. The drones will be be within line of sight of the pilots at all times, no more than a quarter of a mile from the operator. The drones will be flown within 50-100 feet around power lines, and only during day light hours. All flight paths will be approved by the FAA and made public before deployment. As always, there can be some community concern when drones are being used for inspection purposes.

In response to any questions and concerns NIPSCO announced, “Inspection routes may require drones to be flown over public and private property. The company will not take video of the selected inspection routes, nor will it sell any of the information collected to outside companies.” They went on to guarantee that no drones would be flown directly over people, further insuring the public’s safety. With this venture NIPSCO is aiming to benefit their customers, proving to them that they are committed to providing them with the best service by utilizing the most advanced technologies available. If inspectors are able to inspect more lines than ever before at a rapid rate, then they can prevent power outages at a higher rate as well.