BRYAN, Texas — Bryan Texas Utilities have begun doing visual inspections of their transmissions and distribution system thanks to UAV drones. These drones will be flying for the majority of each day for the next three weeks.
“You will be able to see it in various areas, a lot of times it's going to be in the more rural parts of the territory," Public Informer Officer Meagan Brown said. "It flies I guess relatively low in terms of you know, flight because it is inspecting power lines.”
You can expect the drones to fly anywhere from 35 to 40 feet for powerlines and up to 100 feet for poles in various areas of Brazos and Burleson counties. When it came down to deciding to use this technology, it was all about efficiency according to Brown.
“We couldn't send up a person in a bucket to inspect all of our, We have 1000s of miles of line throughout the service territory that would take quite a long time and quite an expense to do so," Brown said. "It's much easier to do so with technology these days with a drone and have somebody review the footage.”
Brown says reviewers of the footage will be looking for any visual indicators that might lead to possible outages in the future or somewhere improvement to service can be made to enhance the reliability of the electric system.
“Any contractors that work for BTU should have a BTU contractor sticker on the side of their vehicle just so you know they are associated with us," Brown said. "If you have any questions about someone entering your property for right of way, maintenance, or this drone surveillance just give us a call."
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