Innovation in flight: how drones are helping to secure power grids
From buzz to brilliance: our drones are driving innovation, enhancing power line inspections, cutting emissions, and safeguarding the energy grid.
At E.ON, we’ve taken energy innovation to new heights—literally! Our drones are soaring across Europe, inspecting power lines, monitoring environmental conditions, and ensuring the grid runs smoothly. From spotting power line faults to battling bad weather in the blink of an eye, these drones are redefining how we monitor, maintain, and protect our energy grid, whilst also helping us build a more reliable, greener future.
The future of power line inspections
Gone are the days when inspecting power lines meant scaling poles or forging a path through thorny bushes. Thanks to drones, we’re now finding and fixing issues in hours rather than days.
In the Czech Republic, we’ve been testing automated drones that use AI to detect faults more quickly and safely. With real-time footage and no need to switch off the power.
Faster inspections mean less downtime, fewer disruptions for customers, and increased efficiency in maintaining our network. And with no need to switch off equipment during inspections, our customers stay powered up while we’re checking things out.
Drones are revolutionising our inspections across Europe
Our drone fleet is already flying over countries like Hungary, where natural obstacles like rivers and forests used to slow down inspections. Now, drones are flying above the storm damage, capturing high-quality footage in all weather conditions. It’s like having an all-seeing eye that never needs a break.
Over in Germany, drones have already conquered the skies, with more than 270 pilots are skilled to operate 100 drones. These devices aren’t just quick and efficient; they’re also versatile. From navigating tight spaces between power lines to removing foreign objects like kites, they’re handling multiple challenges with ease.
Beyond just fault-finding, our drones are cutting down on emissions by replacing helicopter inspections. In Sweden, by switching from helicopters to drones for inspections, we’ve not only cut emissions but also boosted our ability to detect ten times more faults than traditional methods—meaning fewer power outages, lower emissions and happier customers.
Drones: the future of fault-finding
It’s not just the skies where drones are making a splash (although they do fly up to 7,000 metres!). In Romania, our Spectrum AERO project is deploying drones to enhance power line inspections. With thermal cameras and AI algorithms, these flying machines don’t just detect faults – they’re learning to predict them. They’re quicker, safer, and smarter than ever, reducing the need for manual, on-the-ground inspections and making the whole process more efficient.
By capturing real-time data and storing it in the cloud, our drones are helping us to drive digitisation across the grid. The future is electric, and our drones are helping us get there faster, with fewer disruptions and a greener footprint.
A greener future – what’s next?
As we expand our drone fleet across Europe, we’re pushing boundaries. With AI integration, our drones are poised to be the ultimate guardians of the grid, cutting down-time, saving energy, and keeping things humming along smoothly.
With smarter drones on the horizon, we’re paving the way for a more reliable, future-proof energy grid – not only with the technology itself, but also the ability to drive a new, green, tech-driven workforce.
So next time you see a drone buzzing overhead, it might just be working hard to keep the lights on!