K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Talk about the potential value of drone technology has driven interest and investment for many years now. While the drone industry is arguably beyond this hype phase, the reality of how and where it can create value is something that many are still trying to define in terms of application and ROI. Multiple presentations during the Energy & Utilities track of Amsterdam Drone Week laid out what these applications look like, how ROI can be measured and much more.
Moderated by Sebastian Babiarz, COO of Dronehub, each presenter detailed what it has meant for them to use drones to achieve significant cost savings, enhance safety and reduce inspection time. How those differences can scale and be further augmented with autonomous solutions was a throughline that each of them mentioned but approach in different ways.
Axpo Grid is Switzerland's largest producer of renewable energy and an international leader in energy trading and the marketing of solar and wind power. Kevin Geiger, Digital Engineer at Axpo Grid, talked about how the company got involved with drones as a means to enable digital asset modeling, a digital workforce, analytics and applications and automated maintenance. Doing so has allowed them to better deliver a full service and redefined their approach to visual inspections, which are supported by Grid Sysytem from eSmart Systems. Douglas Coene from eSmart Systems further defined this connection.
Doing so has enabled the company to be 40% more efficient, but what exactly does this mean? With the same time and same budget, inspectors can get more done. The detailed images captured via drones allow them to zoom in and view details that otherwise might have compelled another look at an asset. With this info, inspectors can determine whether they need to take action or nott, removing what would have otherwise been time and money to make that assessment. Their biggest challenges are related to hardware limitations, regulation, image capture and standardization but he talked through how the organization is looking to overcome each.
Continue reading: https://www.commercialuavnews.com/energy/defining-the-value-of-drone-technology-at-scale-in-energy-utilities
Moderated by Sebastian Babiarz, COO of Dronehub, each presenter detailed what it has meant for them to use drones to achieve significant cost savings, enhance safety and reduce inspection time. How those differences can scale and be further augmented with autonomous solutions was a throughline that each of them mentioned but approach in different ways.
Axpo Grid is Switzerland's largest producer of renewable energy and an international leader in energy trading and the marketing of solar and wind power. Kevin Geiger, Digital Engineer at Axpo Grid, talked about how the company got involved with drones as a means to enable digital asset modeling, a digital workforce, analytics and applications and automated maintenance. Doing so has allowed them to better deliver a full service and redefined their approach to visual inspections, which are supported by Grid Sysytem from eSmart Systems. Douglas Coene from eSmart Systems further defined this connection.
Doing so has enabled the company to be 40% more efficient, but what exactly does this mean? With the same time and same budget, inspectors can get more done. The detailed images captured via drones allow them to zoom in and view details that otherwise might have compelled another look at an asset. With this info, inspectors can determine whether they need to take action or nott, removing what would have otherwise been time and money to make that assessment. Their biggest challenges are related to hardware limitations, regulation, image capture and standardization but he talked through how the organization is looking to overcome each.
Continue reading: https://www.commercialuavnews.com/energy/defining-the-value-of-drone-technology-at-scale-in-energy-utilities
