Drone Technology Helps State Grid Corporation Conduct Detailed Inspections of ADSS Optical Cables

Recently, during the National Work Safety Month, State Grid Juye County Power Supply Company utilized drone technology to conduct detailed inspections of ADSS power and telecommunications optical cables. This initiative aims to prevent public safety and power grid incidents caused by potential hazards in ADSS optical cables and further enhance the safe operation of optical cables in the power and telecommunications networks.

To improve the efficiency of power fiber-optic cable inspections, State Grid Juye County Power Supply Company formulated a specialized work plan for line inspections. The company carefully reviewed the key points for ADSS fiber-optic cable safety inspections and photography requirements. For components such as pole numbers, pole bodies, straight-line hardware, tension hardware, joint boxes, guide clamps, and large and small side channels, the company determined the optimal shooting angles and focus settings before hovering the drone to take photographs. After completing the inspection, the photos were exported, organized, and named according to standard conventions. Based on the content of the photos and their latitude and longitude information, the ADSS cable line ledger was updated and refined. Using the drone images, the company systematically reviewed and verified the status of high-risk sections of the ADSS cables line by line, checking for safety hazards such as sag, electrochemical corrosion, and the integrity of hardware fittings.

By utilizing UAV inspection technology, the average inspection time per tower has been reduced from 30 minutes—which was the time required for traditional pole-climbing inspections—to just 5 minutes. This eliminates the need for inspectors to climb up and down the poles, reduces physical strain, minimizes visual errors and blind spots in photography, enables the timely detection and remediation of potential hazards, and significantly improves inspection quality and efficiency.

To date, State Grid Juye County Power Supply Company has completed inspections of 431 kilometers of 35 kV and higher ADSS power and communication optical cables across 2,200 towers within its jurisdiction. A database of high-risk sections has been established, and all identified hazards have been rectified, with the rectification rate for optical cable hazards reaching the vast majority. The company will further expand the use of drones for optical cable inspections, conduct routine drone inspections of power and telecommunications optical cables, and apply drones to the acceptance testing of newly constructed and renovated optical cable lines. These efforts will enhance operation and maintenance standards and provide robust technical support for the safe and reliable operation of the Juye power grid.