News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
When the power goes out, drones have increasingly become a tool to help utility crews diagnose the issues.
Caney Fork Electric Cooperative Director of IT Nathan Parsley said the co-op started using drones two years ago. Parsley said Caney Fork mostly uses drones for surveying purposes. Parsley said the drones have thermal imaging to help detect problems on the insulators at the top of utility poles that otherwise may never be seen.
“It can be cracked and you will never see it,” Parsley said. “But with the thermal, you know if you’re not in the bright sunlight like maybe on a dark afternoon or something. You can take a thermal image and see the crack show up because you will have electricity somewhat arcing through the crack in that insulator.”
Parsley said drones also provide access to views from 339 feet in the air compared to a crane bucket that only reaches 55 feet. Parsley said the most important benefit of drones has been how much safer they have made it for detecting damages on a utility line.
“It’s safer because it no longer requires us to put a man up in the air,” Parsley said. “Anytime you can keep a person on the ground it is safer.”
Parsley said they are looking to add pole checking as part of the drone operations. Parsley said he hopes soon that will be another process that can be done by drones.
“The pole checking is coming,” Parsley said. “We have been utilizing it some but for pole checking, we have got to get more in the hands. You can do that with cheaper drones and we just got to get more and that’s something we have planned.”
Parsley said Caney Fork is required to have a licensed drone operator to use the drone. Parsley said he thinks more utility departments will use drones more and more in the next couple of years.
