In a collaborative project between Spanish TSO Red Eléctrica, tech platform Elewit and satellite solutions developer Orbital EOS, the capability of satellite imagery analysis is being investigated as a means to identify breakdowns in high-voltage power lines and reduce asset service replacement times.
The project’s proposal is to use very high-resolution satellite imagery from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, allowing terrain surfaces to be observed in unfavourable weather conditions, through clouds and regardless of luminosity conditions.
With the aim of putting this technology into practice, the dismantling of the Trives-Aparecida line in Galicia was used as a tester, which allowed the simulation and visualisation of different damages that could arise on the lines. Various aspects were analysed, such as the precision of the images, requirements to carry out an effective capture of these and their viability to be able to visualise different types of breakdowns.
According to Elewit in a release, the results obtained allowed them to see the technical feasibility of these type of images for the detection of certain types of faults in power lines.
Under normal conditions, a helicopter flight is made to the affected area to inspect the damage. However, when weather conditions are adverse or at times of low visibility such as at night, this review is not feasible. Hence, Red Eléctrica raised the possibility of collaborating with the Valencian startup Orbital EOS to use radar images taken by satellites when the helicopters cannot fly to verify the status of the line.
