State Grid Huai’an Power Supply Company: Autonomous Drone Inspection System Achieves Full Coverage Across the City

In recent years, State Grid Huai’an Power Supply Company has been constructing fixed drone airports at various facilities such as substations, power supply stations, and business offices across the city, actively advancing the establishment of an autonomous inspection system for grid equipment. Recently, the company’s 170th fixed drone airport commenced routine operation, marking the achievement of full coverage of the autonomous drone inspection system throughout the entire Huai’an power grid.

Drones Collaborate with Quadruped Robots for Autonomous Inspection of Substation Equipment

Since then, operation and maintenance personnel can dispatch work orders via the comprehensive drone management system. Drones can then autonomously and efficiently conduct comprehensive inspections of transmission, substation, and distribution equipment within their operational radius, following predefined task plans. Defects are automatically identified and analyzed by AI algorithms, which subsequently issue handling orders to the relevant equipment management organizations. The current accuracy rate of this process exceeds 90%. According to statistics, through centralized and standardized allocation of drone operations, State Grid Huai’an Power Supply Company now performs lean operation and maintenance using drones for over 6,000 kilometers of transmission lines, more than 26,000 kilometers of distribution lines, and nearly 200 substations annually.

Autonomous Inspections

Moreover, through continuous iterative training of autonomous drone recognition algorithms by State Grid Huai’an Power Supply Company, the drones are now capable of reading and analyzing meter values on substation equipment, such as surge arresters, at three times the efficiency of manual operations. With over 85% accuracy, they can reliably identify potential hazards near transmission lines and corridors, including plastic film, plastic greenhouses, and color steel plates, thereby ensuring safe and stable grid operation during severe weather events such as typhoons and strong convective storms.

Currently, beyond maintaining the company’s own power equipment, the autonomous drone inspection system is also being actively deployed in support of urban civilization campaigns, waterway and river inspections, and electricity user equipment inspection, contributing to the development of the low-altitude economy. This effort enhances both the Huai’an power grid and broader socio-economic development through new-quality productive forces.(Text/Photos by Yuan Zhi, Wang Jiahui)