Between the Poles

Automating scan-to-BIM for brownfield substations

With about 55,000 substations in the U.S. and the average age of the transformers in these substations over 40 years old, many substations are going to be refurbished, retrofitted, extended or upgraded. Utilities are opting to create digital twins of their existing substations as part of this process to enable maintenance and upgrading activities to be performed more efficiently. For older substations records may consist in outdated 2D paper drawings or documents may be missing altogether.  New digital scanning technology together with machine learning is making it possible to semi-automate the process of creating intelligent BIM models from point clouds derived from laser scanning or photography.

primtech is a CAD-based design tool for designing high voltage substations.  An important recent enhancement Optical Symbol Recognition (OSR) allows point clouds from laser scanning or photography to be imported and then to apply machine learning to semi-automate the process of creating an intelligent BIM model. 

The software includes an extensive library, which contains more than four thousand intelligent 2D and 3D electrical devices from different manufacturers, steel structures, foundations, and wires and tubes.  The library has been growing for over 15 years and includes new equipment and elements as well as for legacy assets.  Each symbol (device, steel or foundation, etc.) has a specific geometric signature in the database in addition to meta data, file links, connection points and defined object behaviours. Together these comprise smart objects that enables objects in point clouds to be recognized and converted into an intelligent substation information model. The resulting intelligent model provides the basis for the calculations required in the substation engineering process.

The OSR process consists of two phases; first conductors are created and then equipment is added. A wire can be created by simply selecting three points, first anchor point, maximum sag point and end anchor point. For tubes, two or more points can be selected. Wires and tubes are available in the library for different conductor types according to international standards.  After conductors has been created and placed, the OSR tool provides a list of compatible library symbols for each symbol type. It is up to the user to choose which symbol should be selected. The user can select the perfect matching symbol or another one in the list. A similar workflow applies to all the other symbols like support structures and foundation heads. The system then combines the symbols to create assemblies (electrical device, support structure, foundation head) and places them in the model. Once an assembly has been created, the OSR tool will recognize identical assemblies in the point cloud and propose it for those positions in the substation. The wires are automatically attached to the respective electrical connection points on the equipment upon the insertion of the assemblies.  After the OSR tool has examined all objects in the point cloud and they have been mapped to an assembly in the model, a logical and intelligent primtech BIM model has been created. The model can be used as a full-fledged template for extension or retrofit - to create parts lists and plans as well as to carry out calculations including phase checking, clearance calculation, lightning protection calculation, sag and short-circuit effects calculations.

The new OSR technology is not fully automatic but drastically improves efficiency and reliability of converting point clouds into intelligent 3D models.This is an important advance that could dramatically improve the process of scanning brownfield substations to intelligent models by making the process more efficient and less error-prone.

M. Kokorus, F. Pizarro, W. Eyrich and S. Heuser, "From Optical Symbol Recognition (OSR) of Point Clouds to the Substation Information Model," 2018 IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition (T&D), Denver, CO, USA, pp. 1-4., 16-19 April, 2018

First substation built using full life-cycle BIM construction goes live one month early

Hubei Electric Engineering Corporation (HEEC) was this year's winner of the Bentley Year in Infrastructure Communications and Utilities award.  One of the key objectives of the ground-breaking CNY 120 million (US$16.8 million) Miluo Western 220kV substation project was to reuse the design BIM model and data during construction and to provide a virtual reality BIM model to the owner on completion of the project to improve operations and maintenance procedures. As a result of the application of digital technology including reality modeling using UAVs, full life-cycle building information modeling (BIM), integrated BIM and geospatial, construction monitoring, and construction simulation, construction was completed 30 days ahead of schedule saving CNY 6.3 million (US$ 895,000).

Hubei Electric Engineering Corporation (HEEC) began applying 3D design to projects beginning in 2013. In 2017 the State Grid Corp began to promote 3D design and held a competition to select the best design companies to carry out 3D demonstration projects. HEEC came in first in this competition and was awarded the Miluo Western 220kV substation project. In addition 3D design standards for China's electric power industry had been developed and HEEC was a leading contributor to six of these standards. On this project HEEC strictly implemented these standards during design.

The Miluo Western 220kV substation supplies power to 160,000 customers in a 16 km² area. The total investment in the 10 month project was CNY 120 million ($16.8 million).

Digital technology including reality modeling using UAVs, building information modeling (BIM), integrated BIM+geospatial, construction monitoring, and construction simulation, enabled collaboration between site preparation, mechanical design, electrical design, protection, and communications design teams.  The challenges that HEEC targeted on this project were several.

First of all, the site was constricted because of existing houses and a key objective was to minimize impact on the existing buildings. By scanning the area and using geospatial reality modeling techniques, the area occupied by the substation was reduced by 22% saving CNY 2.5 million and avoiding the demolition of six houses.

Secondly, the project was the first to apply the 3D standards mandated for the entire Chinese utility industry. The Miluo Western 220kV substation is among the first batch of 3D demonstration projects based on 3D standards.  This is the first of the 3D demonstration projects to go into operation, in June 2019.

Third, because the site chosen for the substation was constricted, cables and equipment were closed together than in other substations. HEEC reengineered the design process and developed a series of system processes to ensure the quality of 3D design by collaborative design between mechanical, electrical, protection, communication, and site preparation teams. During design, clash detection between these different elements avoided 30 instances of rework during construction saving CNY 800,000.

Fourthly, from the beginning the objective was to find a way to reuse the design BIM model during construction. Typically a separate BIM model is developed by construction contractors to be used during construction. HEEC investigated ways that 3D pdfs, mobile handhelds, cloud storage, and other technologies could be used to enable the 3D design BIM to be used to schedule construction.

Fifth, HEEC used reality capture techniques including UAVs to monitor construction progress on a daily basis. Due to uncertain factors factors in the construction process, there will necessarily be deviations between planned and actual construction. By monitoring these on a daily basis ensured that these do not hold up the project. At YII2019 HEEC showed an amazing video with actual and planned construction side by side where each frame represented a day.

Finally, an important goal was to use digital technology to improve operations and maintenance procedures. At the end of the project HEEC was able to hand over to the State Grid a virtual reality BIM+geospatial model designed to improve operations and maintenance procedures.

In summary digital technology including reality capture, construction simulation, and full-lifecycle BIM resulted in tangible benefits; avoiding the demolition of 6 houses and reducing the area required for the substation by 22% for a saving of CNY 2.5 million; significant savings in materials saving CNY 210,000; avoided rework saving CNY 800,000; reducing design time by 65 days; and completing construction 30 days ahead of schedule generating economic benefits of CNY 1.5 million. Taken together the total investment was reduced by CNY 6.3 million (US$ 895,000). In addition by providing a virtual reality model to the owner on completion of the project it is expected that substantive savings will be achieved during operations and maintenance.

Toward automating scan-to-BIM for brownfield substations

With about 55,000 transmission substations in the U.S. and the average age of the transformers in these substations over 40 years old, many substations are going to be refurbished, retrofitted, extended or upgraded. Utilities are opting to create digital twins of their existing substations as part of this process to enable maintenance and upgrading activities to be performed more efficiently. For older substations records may consist in outdated 2D paper drawings or documents may be missing altogether.  New digital scanning technology together with machine learning is making it possible to semi-automate the process of creating intelligent BIM models from point clouds derived from laser scanning or photography.

Companies are recognizing the benefits of an integrated geospatial and building information modeling (BIM) approach to design and construction. I blogged about the winner of the Year in Infrastructure 2019 award who applied BIM processes and reality modeling on a brownfield substation expansion project. The integrated approach enabled the organization to cut design time, minimize site visits, reduce land requirement and material waste, and, most importantly, eliminate change orders during construction.

Now reality capture and deep learning have been incorporated in a substation design product to semi-automate the scan-to-BIM process for brownfield substations.

primtech is a CAD-based design tool for high voltage substations.  An important recent enhancement Optical Symbol Recognition (OSR) allows point clouds from laser scanning or photography to be imported and then to apply machine learning to semi-automate the process of creating an intelligent BIM model. 

The software includes an extensive library, which contains more than four thousand intelligent 2D and 3D electrical devices from different manufacturers, steel structures, foundations, and wires and tubes.  The library has been growing for over 15 years and includes new equipment and elements as well as for legacy assets.  Each symbol (device, steel or foundation, etc.) has a specific geometric signature in the database in addition to meta data, file links, connection points and defined object behaviors. Together these comprise smart objects that enables objects in point clouds to be recognized and converted into an intelligent substation information model. The resulting intelligent model provides the basis for the calculations required in the substation engineering process.

The OSR process consists of two phases; first conductors are created and then equipment is added. A wire can be created by simply selecting three points, first anchor point, maximum sag point and end anchor point. For tubes, two or more points can be selected. Wires and tubes are available in the library for different conductor types according to international standards.  After conductors has been created and placed, the OSR tool provides a list of compatible library symbols for each symbol type. It is up to the user to choose which symbol should be selected. The user can select the perfect matching symbol or another one in the list. A similar workflow applies to all the other symbols like support structures and foundation heads. The system then combines the symbols to create assemblies (electrical device, support structure, foundation head) and places them in the model. Once an assembly has been created, the OSR tool will recognize identical assemblies in the point cloud and propose it for those positions in the substation. The wires are automatically attached to the respective electrical connection points on the equipment upon the insertion of the assemblies.  After the OSR tool has examined all objects in the point cloud and they have been mapped to an assembly in the model, a logical and intelligent primtech BIM model has been created. The model can be used as a full-fledged template for extension or retrofit - to create parts lists and plans as well as to carry out calculations including phase checking, clearance calculation, lightning protection calculation, sag and short-circuit effects calculations.

The new OSR technology is not fully automatic but drastically improves efficiency and reliability of converting point clouds into intelligent 3D models.This is an important advance that could dramatically improve the process of scanning brownfield substations and generating  intelligent models by making the process more efficient and less error-prone.

M. Kokorus, F. Pizarro, W. Eyrich and S. Heuser, "From Optical Symbol Recognition (OSR) of Point Clouds to the Substation Information Model," 2018 IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition (T&D), Denver, CO, USA, pp. 1-4., 16-19 April, 2018

Read more about substation design

BIM and reality modeling eliminate change orders for brownfield substation expansion

Companies are recognizing the benefits of an integrated geospatial and building information modeling (BIM) approach to design and construction. At Bentley‘s the Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference in London, the winner of the Year in Infrastructure award in the Utilities Transmission and Distribution category applied BIM processes and reality modeling on a brownfield substation expansion project. The integrated approach enabled the organization to cut design time, minimize site visits, reduce land requirement and material waste, and, most importantly, eliminate change orders during construction.

This year's award winner, Pestech International Berhad, applied reality modeling and 3D modeling in the expansion of an existing substation located in a rapidly growing industrial area close to the largest airport and port in Malaysia. This was a brownfield project that involved adding 500-kilovolt capacity to an existing 275/132-kilovolt substation. 

Substation design requires coordination between multiple disciplines, including site preparation, electrical design, mechanical design, protection design, and communications design. Traditionally, substation design involves a waterfall information flow consisting of CAD drawings and paper documents among the various disciplines. It is characterized by time-consuming, error-prone manual processes that make it difficult to correct errors, change designs, and keep everyone current with the latest documents. For a brownfield project, substation design also requires frequent visits to the site, which is hazardous and time-consuming. As a result of this fractured process, multiple submissions of the design are typically submitted to the client because of design errors. Often, the land area required for the site is overestimated and the bill of materials, which is generated manually in a time-consuming and unreliable process, results in material shortages during construction.

By automating the design process, the design time to complete the electrical drawings could be reduced from five to six months to one to two months. The bill of materials, which could require weeks to months to complete manually, could be generated instantaneously with much greater precision, reducing material waste and avoiding material shortages during construction. Clash detection could be automated, making it possible to detect clashes during design. For a brownfield project, compatibility with the existing structure can be ensured with the reality mesh, thus avoiding site visits. The combined reality and BIM model represented a single source of truth enabling all disciplines to stay current. In contrast to a waterfall information flow, a centralized 3D model enables different disciplines to work in parallel. The most important project benefit is that design errors could be detected and eliminated during design, rather than during construction. As a result, there were no rework orders due to design errors.

Reality modeling is the key technology contributing to this advancement. Reality modeling is the convergence of reality capture using 3D technologies, point clouds from LiDAR, and generating reality meshes from point clouds and digital photographs with BIM design. Geolocation plays a key role in integrating these technologies. Bentley calls this process geocoordination, and it makes it very simple to integrate data from diverse reality capture sources as well as to reuse existing engineering data together with 3D BIM design models. As I have blogged about previously, integrated geospatial and BIM is essential for a full lifecycle approach for managing infrastructure assets. 

Geocoordinated BIM modeling benefits build and operate projects

Integrated BIM and geospatial modeling provide greater value to projects that involve not just design and construction but also operations and maintenance for an extended period after construction. At the Year in Infrastructure 2017 (YII2017) in Singapore the winner of the Be Inspired Award for BIM Advancements in Utilities was a Malaysian construction company that chose geocoordinated 3D digital design for a transmission and substation project. A contributing factor in the decision to use geocordinated digital modeling was the requirement of the project to operate and maintain the substation for 25 years before handoff to the utility.

There are more and more projects that require maintenance or operations and maintenance for an extended period after construction. I blogged previously about projects in the Netherlands initiated by Rijkswaterstaat called design-build-finance-maintain (DBFM) projects. The Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) board is convinced of the benefits of BIM and BIM/geospatial integration and rolled out BIM/geospatila for four DBFM projects with the intention to require BIM on all DBFM-contracts in the future. PESTECH International Berhad, the winner of the Be Inspired BIM Advancements in Utilities Distribution & Transmission award for its project Automation and Integration of Substation Design Project in Kratie and Kampong Cham, Cambodia, used geocoordinated digital design for the development of a new substation.  The decision to use geocordinated design technology for this project was partially motivated by the requirement that the company would not only be responsible for designing and building the substation but also for operating it for a period of 25 years before transferring it to the utility.

Cambodia is a rapidly developing tourism spot and its major cities are also growing rapidly. Electricity pays a key role in this development. A major project initiated in 2015 was a 125km 230 kV transmission line from Kratie to Kampong Cham which required the construction of a new substation. This is in support of the 700MW Sesan Hydro Power Plant which is under Construction in the upper Mekong area. The first stage of the power plant is expected to be commissioned in December 2017 and the power will be transmitted to Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia, through the Kampong Cham Kratie Transmission Line.

PESTECH was awarded its first build, operate and transmit (BOT) project in 2015 by Electrique Du Cambodge (EDC). This project is comprised of two stages.  Stage 1 is to design, procure, construct and commission the transmission line and substation. Stage 2 is  to operate and maintain the line and substattion for 25 years after the first stage which is scheduled for completion in November 2017. This is an important milestone for PESTECH because this is the first project where the company not only builds the facility but is also responsible for operating the power transmission system for a concession period of 25 years. During this period, the company will be accountable for the smooth operation and maintenance of the the power transmission system consistent with prudent utility practices.

The substation design tool integrates both 3D substation design, with 2D electrical protection and control schematics and panel design.  Having everything unified in a single software application gave the entire engineering team a seamless view of the entire project starting with the substation layout, then allowing zooming into the control room and navigating individual panels.  All of the software is geocoordinated (geospatially-enabled) which allows location to be used to index and organize project files, models, and documents.

During design PESTECH realized significant benefits from digitalizing the design process.  These included requiring less than seven working days for schematic drawings each of which normally required 14-21 working days, automatically generating cable schedules which usually required three days to check and document each cable in the project, and component wastage for cables and electrical components reduced by 10-20%.  Substation design which used to require two weeks of conventional CAD work required only three days with the digital tools.  2D and 3D project drawings could be generated as smart PDFs which reduced paper requirements and made it much easier fro drawings to be checked by the the supervising engineer and by the customer.  Overall PESTECH estimated that up to 70% of design time was saved by utilizing geocoordinated 3D digital modeling.

This is still early days since the transmission line and substation are not scheduled to enter operation until December, but significant benefits of the geocordinated 3d modeling approach are expected during the 25 year operate and maintain phase of the project where the 3D models and other information collected during the design and build phase of the project will be reused to help maintain and operate the transmission line and substations.

The presentation by PESTECH International Berhad at YII2017 is available here.

Importance of implementing cybersecurity for engineering projects using BIM

At GeoBusiness 2017 in London, Hugh Boyes, a Cyber Security specialist outlined some of the security risks of digital engineering and the importance of cybersecurity for engineering projects.  BIM models, floorplans and 3D LiDAR scans of sensitive buildings and infrastructure can often be found on the web.  He mentioned the floorplan of a major police station, a BIM model of a young offenders facility, and a BIM model of the Victoria Underground station.  All of these could potentially be very useful to anyone interested in disrupting infrastructure.  It is well-known that mapping underground infrastructure reduces risk during construction and also during disasters, natural and man-made.  However, it can also provide information about sensitive infrastructure.  Hugh mentioned substations as particularly sensitive elements of the energy grid.  With traditional centralized generation, substations are critical elements of the grid and are particularly vulnerable.  In many countries disrupting a small number of large substations can leave significant parts of the country without power.   (An advantage of a decentralized grid comprised of many microgrids with their own generating and storage facilities is that it is much less vulnerable.)

For people who are designing and building sensitive infrastructure using BIM, he recommended following the PAS1192-5 guidelines and incorporating security into the design from the start.  PAS 1192-5 specifies processes which will assist organizations in identifying and implementing measures to reduce the risk of loss or disclosure of information which could impact the safety and security of personnel and users of infrastructure or the built infrastructure itself.  PAS 1192-5 is applicable to any built asset or portfolio of assets which is deemed sensitive. It is for use by asset owners and organizations involved in the design, construction, maintenance and management of built assets, especially those who wish to protect their commercial information and/or intellectual property.  Hugh is the joint technical author of BS PAS1192-5 - Specification for security-minded building information modelling, digital built environments and smart asset management.

Be Inspired Awards 2016: Full lifecyle digital modeling of a substation in a congested urban area

At the Year in Infrastructure 2016 conference in London, the Be Inspired Awards attracted over 300 submissions.  Many of these were impressive in how they applied digital technology to designing, constructing and maintaining buildings and infrastructure. The winner of this year's Utilities and Communications sector award was a remarkable full-lifecycle BIM project for a new substation in downtown Wuhan, a major city in central China.

The Miaoshan 220kV Secondary Transformer Substation is a newly built large indoor substation in Dongxihu District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. The project integrated digital tools for construction, site preparation, mechanical, electrical, and protection.  The 3D digital modeling approach enabled collaborative design of an indoor substation with restricted space with multiple voltages in a very congested urban area with minimal impact on the existing buildings and infrastructure and all of this within a tight timeframe.

The project faced severe challenges.  Firstly, it was located in a congested area of downtown Wuhan and the substation was required to be very compact to minimize its impact on the surrounding buildings and infrastructure.  Reality modeling the existing environment was essential because nearby buildings had to be taken into account in designing the site layout including feeder cables.  Secondly, the substation is an indoor station, composed of a building complex with two floors above ground and and one basement floor.  Because of the severely restricted space there was a high risk of clashes in a multi-discipline design environment, easily leading to problems of different teams placing equipment in the same space.  Thirdly, the substation was intended to handle multiple voltages including 220kV, 110kV, and 10kV cables.  Each voltage was handled by a different design team.  Because many cables had to be routed into and out of the building in very restricted space, the risk of collisions and intersections among power control cables of different classes of voltage was high.

3D modeling was essential for this project.  Because of the high risk of clashes and collisions between the designs from different design teams, a shared 3D model was essential to ensure a collaborative approach to design.  The project used several different digital tools for different aspects of the project across disciplines, including electrical, construction, structure, general drawing, irrigation works, heating, ventilation, and site preparation. The electrical team used a substation design tool to perform the design of main wiring, electrical equipment layout, stress calculation and arrangement of wires, lightning protection and grounding, lighting and the layout of cables and supports. The construction team uses a building design tool to design walls, doors, windows, stairs, roof and louvers. The structure team used building design and structural engineering tools to design floors and columns. The master plan team used building design and site preparation tools to design the gate, enclosure walls, access road and the building site. Irrigation work, heating and ventilation programs used a digital building performance tool to complete air conditioner, axial flow fan, water and wastewater pipes
designs.

The digital modeling approach made it possible for people from different disciplines to work in a  collaborative design environment within a unified model space, which greatly reduced clashes between different designs.  One of the important benefits of the 3D model approach was that minimized the impact of the substation on the existing infrastructure.   Since the transformer substation is located in the downtown of Wuhan where buildings are dense, reality capture was used to model the area surrounding the substation.  This helped to ensure the substation site design did not conflict with surrounding buildings.  A major benefit of the 3D model approach was that it made it possible to design a substation that fulfilled the requirements, but avoided having to demolish four nearby residential apartment buildings.  To enable combining the model, the point cloud data, the digital terrain model and other external data everything was geolocated (geo-coordinated).

Geo-coordination, a term minted by Bentley, is key to integrating data from many different sources including reality modeling, 3D building models and associated information.  Bentley recognized the value of geo-coordination very early on. With all Bentley applications in the last 12 years every infrastructure asset has geo-coordination in the form of real world x y z coordinates.  Geo-coordination enables engineers and facilities managers to find things that are tagged,related, or close to a building element and it makes it possible to navigate the information environment, not only 3D design models (virtual reality), but also 3D models in a real world context (augmented reality). It is recognized as essential for full-lifecycle (design, build, maintain and operate) BIM.  In this project it was fundamental not only for integrating the substation design and its real world context, but also for making it possible to reuse the BIM model and associated data during operation and maintenance.

The digital design approach reduced the project design time by 20 working days, verification time by 30 working days, and saved about CNY 50 thousand in design costs.  According to project statistics, the collaborative approach enabled by digital modeling avoided more than ten potential cases of rework during construction, saving CNY 2 million.  During the project review by external evaluators, the 3D digital model made it easier for the evaluators to understand the design intent, which played a decisive role in ensuring adequate communication of the design and implementation. This reduced the number of meetings required during the review.  A side effect was that it enhanced the reputation of the Design Institute.

During construction, mobile devices were used in the field to convey details of cable placement to the construction unit.  In addition, models showing the intended location of cables were converted into 3D PDF documents which were used in the field to ensure that the construction unit understood the designed cable placement.  The result was that construction went smoothly, reducing construction time by 15 days.

Some of the key benefits were that reality modeling of the neighborhood enabled planning of the station site layout as well as site access that minimized impact on the surrounding buildings.  The project uses 3D digital model and associated software made it possible for all disciplines to work collaboratively which significantly reduced the clashes between designs form different disciplines. 3D modeling made it possible to plan the arrangement of various types of cables a a very detailed level, which helped avoid crossovers and collisions and reducing fire risk and enhancing safety. 

Perhaps most importantly for the total cost of the project including operations and maintenance, the model and associated data was brought into an FM tool that made it possible efficiently manage plant data, technical specifications, operation and maintenance manuals and other detailed information for operation and maintenance management of the substation after construction.

Autodesk utility design and substation products spun off to SBS

It has just been announced that Autodesk and Spatial Business Systems (SBS) have formed a strategic alliance.   SBS will be responsible for future development, support, and licensing of Autodesk^® Substation Design for Inventor^®, Autodesk^® Substation Design for Electrical, and AutoCAD ^® Utility Design (AUD) software.   SBS will focus on the ongoing development and support of Substation Design and AUD, while Autodesk will continue to focus on the underlying platform technologies. This is intended to enable SBS to employ innovative, customer-focused development processes to support the new product enhancements necessary to address the evolving needs of the utility industry. The new products offered by SBS will be renamed to reflect the new structure.

The Autodesk team responsible for product development, system deployment and support will join SBS and work to incorporate new enhancements that will more closely integrate with the SBS Utility DataHub™ suite of utility integration products.

This sounds like very good news for Autodesk utility customers.  I have known Dennis Beck, President of SBS, for years.  He and his team know the utility business intimately having developed spatially-enabled utility solutions integrating Smallworld, Autodesk, Oracle and other products for a wide range of utility customers.

DistribuTECH2016: Dramatically cutting utility costs with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying beyond visual line of sight

If you would ask me among all the new technologies on display here and at other events which will likely dramatically reduce the bottom line of utilities in the transmission business I would say unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.  For example, every utility which has transmission lines spends large sums on overflying, typically with very expensive helicopter flights, transmission lines for vegetation management to monitor the trees to prevent them from interfering with transmissions lines.  If instead this could be done with much less expensive UAV flights, the savings would be huge. But right now this is not possible, because commercial operation of UAVs is only allowed by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) with visual line of sight (VLOS) rules.

 

The potential ROI of using UAVs for vegetation monitoring are expected to be sizable, but this requires the FAA to change regulations to permit operating of UAVs with beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) rules.  Today at DistribuTECH2016 Eileen Lockhart of Xcel Energy with partners Environmental Consultants Inc and Flot Systems gave a presentation that showed just how close we are to UAVs operating under BVLOS rules becoming a commercial reality for electric power utilities.

 

Xcel Energy, which has electric and gas assets in eight states, is the fourth largest utility in the U.S.  They have partnered with EEI, EPRI, INL and others in the utility sector to show the way in the application of UAVs in the utility sector.   This includes working with the FAA to push forward the practical application of UAVs in the utility sector.  Their objectives are improved safety for utility employees and the public, reducing risk to and improving reliability of the grid, and reducing the cost of operating and maintaining grid infrastructure.  The technologies involved include GIS and geospatial analytics in addition to the UAVs themselves.  Expected sources of major savings are reducing the need for expensive helicopters and plane flights and the time utility employees have to spend in the field.

 

Xcel launched their UAV Proof of Concept project in 2015 with seven UAV missions in transmission, gas operations, energy supply, and electricty distribution.

• Transmission line and tower inspections
• Substation facility rating data collection
• Pipeline bridge and river crossings inspections
• High pressure pipeline inspections
• Coal/ash storage inventory (volumetric)
• Wind turbine blade inspections
• Storm damage assessment

Just last week (Feb 3, 2016) Xcel with its partners completed the first beyond visual line of sight mission with UAV flights over 20 miles of transmission lines.  They are convinced that BVLOS flights will become a commercial reality in the near future.   The UAV flights will not  be flown by Xcel itself but by contractors such as Flot Systems operating with FAA licences.  Xcel has not yet calculated ROIs for the applications using UAVs, but plan to do so soon.

One third of Be Inspired Awards involve mapping, managing, rehabbing and replacing aging infrastructure

Worldwide there is increasing demand from building and infrastructure owners for service provision throughout the entire life cycle of a building or infrastructure. This represents a distinct break with the design/build tradition which has dominated construction for years.  At the Year in Infrastructure conference in London, a dominant theme was the growing recognition of the importance of full lifecycle management of infrastructure.  I found it symptomatic of the direction of the construction industry that fully one third of the 54 finalists for the annual Be Inspired Awards involved mapping, rehabbing, retrofitting, replacing and managing existing infrastructure.  This is my classification of these Be Inspired finalists;

Be Inspired Finalists

1 Full lifecycle workflow
2 Replacement
7 Renovation, rehab, retrofit
3 Mapping existing infrastructure
1 Historic site protection
5 Utility asset management

Full life cycle management

Patrick MacLeamy, Chairman of buildingSMART and CEO of HOK, has been pushing a very simple message about the U.S. construction industry for years.  Buildings are too expensive, are too inefficient to operate and maintain, and don't last long. As a result the U.S. construction industry is falling behind the Nordic countries, the U.K. and Singapore.  His solution is a full life cycle approach to construction.  Information has to be shared between owners, designers, contractors, operations and facilities management over the entire life cycle of the building or infrastructure.

Buildings

Over 50% of the cost of maintaining a building is operations and maintenance which is comprised of administration, maintenance and repairs, and restoration projects.  In several countries BIM has become essential for design and construction.  But many including the UK government believe that the full value of BIM can only be found during the operational life of the building where the majority of the life cycle costs occur.  The UK government has said that "the 20% saving refers to CapEx cost savings however we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle".

Road and highway infrastructure

Highway construction is being transformed, due in part to the arrival of autonomous vehicles.  I've blogged about the startling (at least to traditional construction contractors) vision of the future of highway construction of the Chief of Surveys at the Oregon Department of Transportation (DoT) which targets the full lifecycle of highway assets from planning through design and construction and operation and maintainenance.  Some large construction projects are already being designed, built and operated and maintained with a full lifecycle perspective.

Utility infrastructure

Industry surveys report that up to 80 percent of a utility's resources and budget can be spent on operating and maintaining existing utility infrastructure.   Surveys also show that aging utility infrastructure is a top priority for most utilities.

Be Inspired Awards: Mapping, Monitoring, Rehabbing, and Replacing Infrastructure

One of the projects focused specifically on full lifecycle data management for highway construction.  The project, which was submitted by the Roads Directorate, Denmark, is for the $ 580 million 39-kilometer Herning – Holstebro highway which includes eight interchanges, four railway crossings, and five bridges.  The important achievement of the project was to create a digital workflow with meaningful requirements for sharing data among disciplines and across the entire project lifecycle.  The project was a finalist for the year's Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Roads.

Seven of the finalists' submissions involved renovation, rehabbing, and retrofit.  An outstanding example of a rehab project is the Bond Street to Baker Street Tunnel Remediation Project.  This is a London Underground  project in the UK.  It involved the replacement of the existing elastoplastic concrete lining of a 215-meter tunnel segment on the Jubilee Line with a spheroidal graphite iron lining - all while the line was running at full capacity.  This achievement won this year's Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Rail and Transit at the Year in Infrastructure 2015 conference.

Two of the finalists' projects involved replacement. An example of a replacement project was the Decommissioning and Replacement of Del Rio Bridge on US 20  this was carried out by Harper-Leavitt Engineering for the Idaho Transportation Department with minimum disruption to traffic.

Five of the finalists submitted projects that involved monitoring and extracting more value from existing transportation and utility infrastructure including rail, electric substations, electric and water and waste water distribution networks.

An example is a project submitted by SA Water which won the Be Inspired Innovation in Asset Performance Management Award.  The project involved integrating a hydraulic model and an operational analytics tool with network sensors to help them optimize their network.  These tools enable them to optimize chlorine dosing for different water sources (runoff, desalinization, rivers), minimize electric power costs, and improve water quality by mapping water age across their entire network. SA Water have not only been able to reduce their power bill by A$3 million, but also have cut their network operating costs by nearly a A$ million.  It has also resulted in improved water quality.  More fundamentally it has given them much greater insight into sources of revenue and the costs of various aspects of operating a water network.

Four of the finalist projects involved mapping and historic site protection.  An example is a gas main project submitted by Utility Mapping Services Inc.  This project involved creating a 3D map of underground utilities along a stretch of highway with complex utility infrastructure woven through dense commercial and residential areas with limited right-of-way and heavy traffic congestion.  Most critically from a safety perspective, there were no utility strikes on the project.  As a result the 3D model is credited with reducing construction time from 10 to 7 weeks.  Most importantly from a budget perspective, there were no change orders and the total cost of the project came in at 10-15% less than estimated in the absence of a 3D model.

Another example is a project submitted by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).  Singapore intends to be the world's first "smart nation".  Part of this initiative involves developing a virtual Singapore that is intended to be the source of authoritative information about Singapore for use by government agencies.  The project involves capturing large amounts of data using multiple rapid mapping technologies including oblique imagery, airborne laser scanning, mobile laser scanning, and terrestrial scanning.  The data has been compiled into 3D city model in a single database repository which includes geometry, topology, semantics and appearance.  The database relies on CityGML, a standard managed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), for the database schema and for data exchange.  The total volume of data is more than 50 terabytes. The database is open and accessible to all government agencies. The most challenging part of the project has been the development of business processes and technologies for ensuring the data remains current.  At the the Year in Infrastructure conference in London the SLA the won the annual Be Inspired Award for Innovation in Government.