Between the Poles

Canada plans to allow BVLOS drone operations in remote areas without a waiver

Canada plans to introduce in 2021 certification that would allow pilots to undertake beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) flights in isolated areas without the need for a waiver. This opens the possibility of more frequent, low cost inspection possibilities for transmission utilities with large stretches of line running through vast open areas or forest corridors.

Background

Transmission line inspections for vegetation management and other purposes are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience.  They are generally performed by manned helicopters or by a ground crew.  Data is collected with cameras and analyzed to detect diseased trees that could fall and hit a powerline (fall ins) or trees that were encroaching on power lines (grow ins).  These inspections are mandated by NERC in North America and are not optional.  Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones (UAVs) and software analytics using machine learning has made it possible to approach completely automating this expensive process.  Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has estimated that the reduction in cost with using an automated UAS compared to a helicopter inspection is between 55% and 28%. Automating transmission line inspections for vegetation management using BVLOS drones not only saves money but also could improve the resiliency and reliability of the transmission grid.

There are other important use cases as well including precision agriculture, public safety for search and rescue missions and delivery services to remote and rural communities.

Currently, there are two levels of drone pilot certification in Canada – basic and advanced – which roughly correspond to the FAA’s Part 107 waivers in the US. New rules for commercially operating UAVs in the U.S. were published in 2017 by the FAA as Part 107 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.  For non-standard flights, such as BVLOS missions, Canada require operators to acquire a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) which requires operators to fly their drones beyond visual line-of-sight in isolated areas outside of concentrated population centres and not near restricted airspace such as airports.  In addition there are special provisions for drones with onboard detect-and-avoid (DAA) solution which allows them to fly safely without human intervention even in populated areas.  For example, in March 2020 first approval for BVLOS drone flights was granted in Canada for Iris Automation’s Onboard Detect-and-Avoid technology.

However, Canada plans to introduce in 2021 a tier of certification that would allow pilots to undertake BVLOS flights in low-risk conditions without need for a waiver. This opens possibilities for transmission utilities with large stretches of line running through vast open areas or forest corridors.

Proposed routine BVLOS flights without a waiver

In January 2019, Transport Canada (TC) published new RPAS regulations for operations within visual line of sight (VLOS), and these regulations permit BVLOS operations under low-risk conditions with the issuance of a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC). In April 2020 Transport Canada posted a new Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) to update Canadian regulations to allow for routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations in “Low Risk” environments. The proposed regulatory amendments would be the first of a series of steps towards allowing more routine BVLOS operations. These amendments will not address more complex and higher-risk BVLOS operations in populated areas. Higher risk BVLOS operations will be subject to a separate regulatory process at a later date.

This proposal aims to begin to unlock the potential for beyond visual line-of-sight operations in Canada. Specifically Transport Canada is proposing the following amendments for isolated areas.

• 250 g to 25 kg BVLOS operations in isolated areas; within 1km of an area with a population of more than 25 people per square km; over an area with a population density of more than 25 people per square km; and, in controlled airspace;
• 25 kg to 150 kg BVLOS operations in Isolated Areas, and within 1km of an area with a population of more than 25 people per square km; and,
• 150 kg to 650 kg BVLOS operations in Isolated Areas with a max altitude of 400 feet above ground level.
  

Using satellite imagery to prioritize vegetation management for utilities

A recent startup LiveEO is focusing on the digitalization of energy and transportation network assets using satellite imagery. LiveEO uses current multi-band imagery including radar and hyperspectral data at various resolutions from earth observation satellites to provide services to railway, electric power and pipeline operators.  The services include vegetation, third party encroachment, and ground distortion monitoring. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Sven Przywarra, co-founder of LiveEO.

Transmission line inspections are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience.  They are generally performed by manned helicopters often together with a ground crew.  There are serious safety issues when inspections are conducted by helicopter. Data may be collected with cameras and analyzed to detect a variety of conditions including corrosion, evidence of flash over, cracks in cross arms, and right-of-way issues such as vegetation encroachment. in North America annual inspections are mandated by NERC  and are not optional. With over 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and 5.5 million miles of distribution lines in the United States, improving the efficiency and reducing the risk of inspections would have a major impact on the reliability of the power grid. 

Vegetation is a significant source of outages for many utilities. In some regions from one quarter to one half of all outages can be ascribed to vegetation. Vegetation encroachment initiated the massive North American northeastern outage of 2003. It is so critical for utility operations that some utilities have a vice president responsible for vegetation management. It can be costly for utilities to identify areas of high risk vegetation encroachment. Previously I have blogged about an electric power utility in Brazil that used Airbus Pléiades satellite imagery combined with GIS data to identify high risk areas for vegetation encroachment in a power grid.

A recent startup LiveEO is focusing on the digitalization of energy and transportation network assets using satellite imagery. LiveEO analyzes current multi-band imagery including radar and hyperspectral data for vegetation, third party encroachment, and ground distortion monitoring. LiveEO uses multi-band imagery at various resolutions to distinguish vegetation and network assets, stereo imagery to estimate tree heights, difference detection to identify changes, and interferometry to detect subsidence and other ground distortions at the cm level.  LiveEO is developing its own inhouse training data for machine learning algorithms. 

For electric power utilities LiveEO applies machine learning multi-band satellite imagery from multiple sources to automatically identify areas of high risk for vegetation encroachment and fallover anywhere on the planet. The results of these analyses are available to clients over the web on handheld and other devices.  This enables follow-up ground inspections of areas of high criticality to develop pruning and other response programs. LiveEO has applied this approach to transmission as well as distribution circuits.  To demonstrate the wide ranging capability of their approach LiveEO is offering a demonstration of the analysis of 50 km of line anywhere in the world.

A number of companies, realizing that earth observation imagery in itself is of limited value, are not in the business of selling imagery, but the results of analytics applied to the imagery.  I have blogged about a new company GHGSat who use their own nanosatellite to estimate emissions from industrial plants, leaks from flow and gathering infrastructure in natural gas fields, and even livestock.  LiveEO is another example of a company who apply analytics to the huge amount of earth observation data to provide a valuable service that is safer and less expensive than the traditional approach to transmission and distribution line vegetation monitoring.

Automated drone systems improve power line inspections and reduce costs

Transmission line inspections are mandatory in North America. Traditionally helicopters are used for these inspections, but with helicopters the risk of accidents is significant and helicopters are costly to maintain and operate.  Drone inspections dramatically reduce the risk of accidents.  Aeriosense Technologies has developed an automated drone inspection system that can reduce the cost of inspections by up to 55%. 

Background

Transmission line inspections are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience.  They are generally performed by manned helicopters or by a ground crew.  Data may be collected with cameras and analyzed to detect a variety of conditions including corrosion, evidence of flash over, cracks in cross arms, and right-of-way issues such as vegetation encroachment. Inspections every year or 18 months are mandated by NERC in North America and are not optional. 

With over 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and 5.5 million miles of distribution lines in the United States, improving the efficiency and reducing the risk of inspections would have a major impact on the reliability of the power grid.  Drone technology, legislation and regulations enabling beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights, software for planning flights and analytics for feature identification are making it conceivable that the expensive process of inspections could be completely automated.  Even now current technologies make it possible to dramatically reduce the cost of power line inspections. According to Navigant Research, globally electric utilities are expected to spend over $13 billion a year on drones and robotics by 2026, a dramatic increase from about $2 billion currently. 

Automated drone inspections

Flight plan for transmission tower inspection

Using automated unmanned aerial systems (UAS) Aeriosense Technologies can reduce the cost and improve the safety of vertical infrastructure inspection.  Unlike many other companies which offer drone services to many different industries, Aeriosense focuses only on the electric power sectors, currently transmission but in the future distribution.  I had a chance to chat with Alex Babakov, a co-founder of Aeriosense, who has many years of experience in the electric power sector, including working for BC Hydro Research/ Powertech’s High Voltage Laboratory (HVL). 

Alex explained to me that Aeriosense provides a complete visual inspection of pylons and poles, cables, and right of way including vegetation encroachment using a UAS typically with a photo camera.  Examples of the types of problems that can be identified include broken strands in lines crossing canyons and rivers, corrosion on insulators and other equipment, evidence of flash over, cracks in cross arms, and problems in the right of way such as human or vegetation encroachment.  Aeriosense also conducts inspections as part of storm response to identify damage resulting from extreme weather conditions.

Flight plan for transmission line inspection

Automation enables Aeriosense's drone systems to provide higher quality inspections at lower cost. In preparation for an inspection flight, the available GIS and LiDAR data is analyzed with the aid of machine learning algorithms to create an optimal flight path.  With a flight path optimized in this way cost reductions of about 36% can be achieved compared to manually operated drone-based inspections.  Furthermore compared to manual drone inspections automated inspections reduce pilot fatigue and safety risks while conducting inspections.

Aeriosense is also active in distribution inspections. The sheer size of the distribution network in terms of total number of kilometers and number of pieces of equipment makes it clear that an automated approach is required. With current technology and regulations, automated inspections can be applied to some but not all distribution circuits. In the future with new technology developments and regulations automated inspections will be able to be applied to more distribution circuits.

Cost reduction

Based on data of inspection efficiencies from our past projects and the data coming from the field trials done by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) the reduction in cost with using an automated UAS compared to a helicopter inspection is between 55% and 28%.  The challenge is doing these cost comparisons is that there are intangibles that are difficult to quantify. Safety is one of these. Helicopter accidents are not infrequent in the electric utility industry and more often than not they lead to fatalities.  BC Hydro, for example, has a requirement for helicopters to be dual engine for redundancy and rates for this equipment are much higher.  Other utilities may not be willing to pay for the extra security whichl reduces the rates of the helicopters.

Improved safety

One of the most important benefits of Aeriosense's automated UAS approach is safety. Because of the relatively high risk of helicopter inspections, utilities have been looking for alternatives. Drone-based inspections are much safer and this provides additional motivation for utilities to move toward adopting drone-based inspections.

Development of training datasets for machine learning

Another benefit of the drone-based inspections are that utilities get a historical, unbiased record with the imagery that is captured by the drones. This enables engineers to go back and review the condition of assets not from a written record but from photos.  This provides a more objective view of how the condition of an asset has changed over time.

Collecting historical data has another important benefit in that it can provide a body of imagery that can be used to train machine learning algorithms. Collecting the data now will allow them to apply the AI tools currently being developed in the future.

Future applications of automated drone systems

The impact of more frequent, less costly inspections is improved reliability. Combining the efficiency of automated UAS inspections with defect detection using machine learning will allow utilities to get a very clear, timely situation assessment of their distribution system.  Aeriosense is currently working with the Centre for Energy Advancement through Technological Innovation on a project to help utilities identify current opportunities of automated drone applications and to develop best practices in implementing automated drone inspection programs.  Aeriosense is currently working in the transmission and distribution sector, but is actively exploring applications in the substations and generation verticals.

Another area that Aeriosense is currently piloting is the use of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAS flights for transmission inspections. FAA rules permit beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAVs through Part 107 waivers.  I have blogged about Xcel Energy which obtained one of the first three waivers to fly UAVs for beyond visual line of sight operations. Xcel Energy estimates that flying drones beyond line of sight will eventually cost between $200 and $300 per mile, compared to helicopter flights that cost an average of $1,200 to $1,600 per mile.  More than 30 of these waivers have been granted and more than 20 companies are operating beyond BVLOS drones, still with some restrictions.  FAA very recently began allowing BVLOS operation using radar to track the location of the UAV.

Summary

Automated drone technology is already impacting transmission line inspections by improving safety, reducing the cost and time required to complete inspections, and by collecting an objective historical record that can provide training data for future machine learning applications. It not only enables more frequent inspections and improved reliability, but it also enables more rapid inspections, which is especially critical after a storm or other emergency situation. Research is underway at Aeriosense to determine the applicability of automated drone technology in other sectors, such as substations and generation, of the electric power industry.

Automating transmission line inspections with BVLOS drones and machine learning

Transmission line inspections for vegetation management and other purposes are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilence.  They are generally performed by manned helicopters or by a ground crew.  Data is collected with cameras and analyzed to detect diseased trees that could fall and hit a powerline (fall ins) or trees that were encroaching on powerlines (grow ins).  These inspections are mandated by NERC in North America and are not optional.  Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones (UAVs) and software analytics using machine learning has made it possible to approach completely automating this expensive process.  Automating transmission line inspections for vegetation management using BVLOS drones not only saves money but also could improve the resiliency and reliability of the transmission grid.

Mapping transmission lines with BVLOS UAVs

At ILMF 2019 in a very interesting talk Paolo Guzzini of Delair described how BVLOS drones has been deployed to map transmission lines in remote areas of Iceland.  Delair conducted two surveys on behalf of EFLA Consulting Engineers, a general engineering and consulting company. EFLA needed to map existing power lines and survey an area where Landsnet, the main transmission system operator in Iceland, planned to build a new power line between two cities. Iceland's airspace regulations allows BVLOS UAVs to be used in areas that are not densely populated. Delair deployed fixed-wing drones to gather two types of data: photography and LiDAR.  The drones were programmed to fly a predetermined flight plan so the pilot had to only monitor the drone's progress and be available for emergencies.  Delair’s drones were able to capture comprehensive data along the planned route and deliver the processed results to the client the next day — all at a fraction of the cost of hiring a helicopter or ground crew.  UAVs with a range of 110-120 minutes flew for up to 10 km per flight. In one case the UAV flew a total of 70 km with a 21.4 megapixel photo camera to capture a corridor of 200 m width to an accuracy of 0.5 m vertical and 0.2 m horizontal accuracy. The actual vertical accuracy achieved was 0.15 m.  In a second mission a UAV flew at 100 m a corridor 10 km in length with a LiDAR camera to capture a corridor 200 m wide with the objective of vertical accuracy of 0.5 m and horizontal accuracy of 0.2 m. The actual accuracy achieved was 4 cm horizontally and 2 cm vertically. The advantage of using LiDAR is that it can achieve better accuracy in location especially in the vertical dimension. In addition the LiDAR approach was able to detect detect conductors and poles.  In both cases the range of the flights was limited by weather conditions, radio range (15 km), and weight of the camera payloads.

Reality capture for vegetation management of transmission lines with BVLOS UAVs

Periodic transmission line inspection is mandated for North American transmission lines by NERC.  Inspections are currently carried out by manned helicopter or ground crews which are expensive and for that reason not done more often than is required by NERC.  Full automation, which is possible with BVLOS UAVs and automated feature extraction of lines, pylons, vegetation and ground, would dramatically reduce the cost of inspection and enable more frequent flyovers.  The major benefits would be lower costs and a reduction in the number and length of outages resulting from vegetation transmission line interactions.

In the U.S. on July 15, 2016, President Obama signed the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016. The 2016 Act requires the FAA to establish a process to allow certain UAV operations related to utilities, pipelines, and oil and gas production to be conducted beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator and either in the daytime or nighttime.  As a result FAA rules permit beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAVs through Part 107 waivers.  I blogged over a year ago about Xcel Energy which obtained one of the first three waiver to fly UAVs for beyond visual line of sight operations.   Paolo related that 32 of these waivers have been granted and that more than 20 companies are operating beyond BVLOS drones but still with some restrictions.  Paolo related that the FAA very recently began allowing BVLOS operation using radar to track the location of the UAV.  Paolo expects to see many long-distance UAV operations in the near future, making drones fully competitive against helicopters.

Over 20 countries have regulations that permit BVLOS UAV flights. In some areas of the world, Delair has even been able to control flights via a 3G data connection, allowing a drone to inspect up to 30 miles in a single flight.

Post-processing

Paolo told me that Delair's post processing software uses a combination of machine learning and other technologies to classify LiDAR point clouds with 85 to 90 % reliability in order to identify potential vegetation encroachments.  I have blogged about Enview and other companies that also offer software solutions for this problem.

Conclusion

Rapidly evolving regulation to permit BVLOS operations, Delair's successful deployment of BVLOS drones with radio or 3G communications and automated post-processing, often cloud-based, to identify potential vegetation encroachment indicate that we are on the cusp of being able to completely automate this type of transmission line inspection.  Using drones and automated feature extraction software not only dramatically reduces the cost of these inspections but makes possible more frequent inspections including on-demand - for example immediately after storms - which would impact positively the reliability and resilience of the transmission grid.

Automating vegetation management for electric power transmission lines using deep learning with LIDAR

With FAA rules permitting beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAVs available through Part 107 waivers the cost of capturing the data required for vegetation management for power lines, whether transmission or distribution, could drop dramatically.  However, manual post processing of the imagery to identify areas of vegetation encroachment, grow-ins and fall-ins, remains an error prone, tedious and time consuming process.  I have come across several firms (for example EPRI, SiteSee, Trimble RealWorks) over the years that have been working towards automating the process for identifying vegetation encroachments including grow-ins and fall-ins, but I have not encountered a utility that is using this technology operationally.  At Distributech 2019 in New Orleans I had a chance to chat with a startup Enview, based in San Francisco,  who described to me how their software has been implemented  over 7,000 miles of transmission lines last year to automate the identification of vegetation encroachment from LiDAR point clouds.  Furthermore, they expect the total distance covered to double this year.

Vegetation is a significant source of outages for many utilities. In some regions from one quarter to one half of all outages can be ascribed to vegetation.  Vegetation encroachment initiated the massive North American northeastern outage of 2003.  It is so critical for utility operations that utilities even have a vice president responsible for vegetation management.  It can be costly for utilities to identify areas of high risk vegetation encroachment which typically are carried out by manned helicopters.  Scheduling and routing crews to prune the trees that require attention is often sub-optimal adding to the cost of vegetation management.  Optimizing these processes can produce significant benefits in the form of fewer outages and reduced costs. I have blogged about Energisa in Brazil who used satellite stereo imagery to prioritize and optimize tree pruning and ComEd's pilot project in Chicago that uses LiDAR imagery to not only prioritize and optimize but also to change the pricing structure for procuring distribution tree trimming.

Enview applies machine learning, computer vision, and geospatial big data analytics to highly reliable feature extraction from LiDAR point clouds to identify the exact location, height and extent of trees and then to determine proximity to power lines and other utility equipment.  Utility GIS data can be integrated and results visualized using colour-coding to identify the level of risk for each tree.  This enables the utility to prioritize their tree trimming and optimize contractor routing.  In environmentally sensitive areas the visualization can be used to inform discussions with the various stakeholders responsible for different land uses.

At Distributech I had a chance to chat with Krassimir Piperkov, COO at Enview, who described how this technology has been deployed on more than 7,000 miles of infrastructure last year, and is on track to be deployed on over twice that much this year. He gave a very recent example of annual vegetation management analytics performed on 230kV transmission lines in California. These lines run through suburban and environmentally-sensitive, heavily forested areas.

3D visualization of a 230kV span (blue lines) with potential grow-in (yellow) and fall-in (red) vegetation that falls within client-determined clearance boundaries.

LIDAR data was acquired by a third party through a helicopter-mounted Teledyne Optech LiDAR sensor package. Four band imagery was co-collected during the LIDAR survey and registered into an orthomosaic of RGB and NIR bands. The data collection generated almost 2GB per linear mile. The Enview data analytics engine processed this data to (i) first classify the massive amounts of LiDAR data and (ii) then automatically calculate potential grow-in and fall-in vegetation points with high speed and accuracy. Insights and data were delivered to the operator not only via GIS-compatible file format for incorporation into existing workflows but also via an intuitive web portal accessible across silos. As a result of the superior accuracy and speed, the client was able to confidently prioritize vegetation prescription work to the areas that need it most and do so much sooner than otherwise possible with traditional methods.

The results being achieved with Enview's technology suggest that we are on the cusp of the widespread adoption and application of deep learning technology to automate specific tasks. The combination of UAVs for data collection and machine learning for feature extraction dramatically reduces the cost of inspections for utilities. This would permit them to be done more frequently than with manned aircraft and would lead to improvement in the reliability of above ground electric power and communications networks.

Innovative electric power for a sustainable future

We are not on track to constrain global temperature rise to 2°C let alone 1.5°C.  Therefore we need some innovative technologies to get us back on track.  At the Geography2050: Powering our Future Planet conference at Columbia University in New York, several presentations described innovative, potentially disruptive technologies that could dramatically change how electric power is generated and transmitted.

Wireless power transmission

General Rick Deveraux of Viziv Technologies described a way of transmitting electric power wirelessly using a technology called a Zenneck surface wave that orovides a direct wireless connection from a generator to a load. It supports much higher field strengths than conventional Hertzian waves and follows the Earth's curvature. Viziv is currently working in a global demonstration project that involves building a fiberglass transmission tower and field intensity monitoring stations around the globe. An advantage of this technology is that it could deliver power to people who are currently off grid. Testing of this configuration starts within 30 days and actual power delivery next year.

On demand emissionless power generation

Christofer Mowry of General Fusion, described how nuclear fusion can provide energy dense, low environmental impact, manufacturable, and dispatchable power generation. In other words a fusion installation requires very little land and can be placed near the sources of load avoiding long haul transmission lines. There are no emissions and very little waste. It does not require fuels that are constrained by supply like fission does. It can supply large volumes of power on demand. The amount of investment in fusion has increased dramatically since about 2007.

Cell phones not requiring recharging

Frank Prautzsch of Velocity Technology Partners described what is potentially a disruptive technology that could affect everyone carrying a cell phone. Thermionic energy conversion (TEC) provides a way of generating power from ambient thermal energy using nano technology. Developed by Birmingham Technologies the Nano-Boxx consists of two metal plates composed of different metals that are placed less than 10 nanometers apart with a nanofluid in between. An electric current is generated when electrons from one plate vaporize and collect on the other plate. The device that was shown was the size of a postage stamp. By stacking them the device can scale from milliwatts to megawatts. 8 to 9 of these will power a cell phone, 800-900 a satellite. It can produce power for about eleven years without charging. To date it has been tested by using it to power an LG Nexus cell phone for the past few years. It is cheaper to produce than a lithium ion battery, has 40% more energy density, and has no emissions.

Powering the world for a million years

Kevan Weaver of the Idaho National Laboratory outlined the results of their calculations that advanced reactors would enable depleted uranium stockpiles and known reserves of uranium to supply 80% of the world's electric power demand for about 2000 years with no carbon emissions. If you add the uranium in the oceans there is enough to provide a source of power for a million years. China and India are investing heavily in fission power generation.  Micro-reactors and small modular reactors can provide safe power to data centers, remote locations that are off-grid, and locations where fossil and other fuels are expensive. The latest reactors (generation III and III+) are much safer than the first and second generation reactors like those at Fukushima, primarily because they do not require an external source of power to cool them in the case of an emergency shutdown.

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.

Perceptality: new laser scanning applications potentially transforming construction

At HxGNLive Juergen Dold, President of Hexagon Geosystems which is responsible for the Leica Geosystems brand, gave a talk about perception and reality.  Perception is how we see the world, but perceptions are subjective and are not always reliable.  Reality can be quite different.  If you have ever worn a pedometer,  you will know exactly what he is referring to - the actual number of steps you walked or ran is often quite different from what you think you did.  Until now measuring things in construction and other industries has been so laborious that it is frequently not done.  Decisions may end up based on the "biggest salary's" opinion.  With laser scanning, photogrammetry, UAVs and other technologies measuring things has become several orders of magnitude easier and we can replace some of our perceptions with reality - Juergen called it fusing reality and perception - and coined a new term for it perceptality.  Since as Peter Drucker said, you can't manage what you don't measure, increasing the reality domain at the expense of someone's perception has the potential to dramatically change construction.

Juergen provided several interesting real world examples of how this translates into practice.

1 Vegetation management for transmission lines - inspecting transmission lines for vegetation encroachment in North America is mandated by NERC.  This is typically an expensive, slow process involving a helicopter carrying a LiDAR camera.  To capture the necessary density of points to be able to identify cables, pylons, and different types of vegetation requires flying at low altitude.  With the latest single photon laser scanner (Leica SPL100), it is possible to collect 80 points per square meter (m²) flying at an altitude of 2,500 meters (about 8,000 ft) as opposed to 3 points per m² with traditional linear laser scanning.

2 Urban mapping - urban mapping can also be time consuming and expensive, but with multiple cameras including LiDAR, photography, and near infrared it is possible to capture a more realistic 3D representation faster.

3 Scanning industrial plants - Cepsa (Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.U.) is a Spanish energy company who are scanning their chemical plants which requires thousands of scans.  A major software advance (Leica Cyclone) allows them to automate the registration process saving a lot of time.

4 Forensics - scanners in backpacks (Pegasus Backpack) or handheld scanners make it possible to walk through the scene of an accident or crime and capture trusted data without disturbing the site.  The data can be used in scientific forensic analysis and to visualize the results of the analysis in court.

5 Digitalizing AEC - The construction industry is one of the most inefficient industries.  $10 trillion is spent on construction goods and services every year. But whereas the average worker adds $37 of value for every hour worked, a construction worker adds only $25 per hour worked. Construction productivity has stagnated over the past decades in many of the world's advanced economies.  To attract the private financing that is necessary to build and maintain the world's infrastructure will require improving productivity.  Digitization can play an important role in this process or even be disruptive (transformative) as it has been in other industries. Innovative firms have increased productivity by 50 to 60 percent by infusing digital technology, new materials, and advanced automation, reskilling the workforce, changing business practices and pushing government to change regulations.

Our existing stock of structures will be with us for many years to come.  Maintaining this infrastructure is currently inefficient and expensive.  New technology can dramatically change this by making renovation more efficient and affordable.  A first step is democratizing scanning.  I have blogged about the deluge of handheld, low cost scanners that are now available.  Many see handheld scanners as potentially revolutionizing the construction sector.  Mantis Vision has offered a handheld scanner F5 for professionals for several years.  Originally targetted on the real estate industry, the Matterport Pro allows you to scan a house in an hour or less, upload the captured data to the cloud (Amazon Web Services) and a couple of hours later you will have a fully-rendered model that can be used for walkthroughs with potential buyers.  The Faro Freestyle is targetted on the architecture, accident reconstruction, civil engineering, construction, facility management, and industrial manufacturing sectors. 

I have blogged previously about the Leica Geosystems BLK360 and Cyclone Register 360  which together appear to be a game changer for professionals in construction.  It is a bit of a stretch to call it a handheld scanner, but it weighs only 2.2 lbs (1 kg) and is incredibly small 6.5 by 4 inches.  Unlike other "handheld" devices it is a full laser scanner and imager - it captures 360,000 points/second with a range of 0.6 - 60 meters with millimeter precision. It has three cameras, laser scanner, photo, and near infrared.  It's one button operation redefines simplicity.  It can capture a full 360 degree scan in less than 3 minutes.  Cyclone Register 360 allows automated registration of scans from many devices to be merged with "one-button" simplicity.

Autonomous UAVs using SLAM to navigate without GPS

I have just spent an incredible three days in Houston at the SPAR3D 2017 conference.  There is so much going on right now in the 3D world with several key technologies just coming to fruition and finding broad application in the real world. 

 

One of them is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology.  In 2012 a company called GeoSLAM, which was a joint venture with Australia's National Science Agency (CSIRO), began marketing a SLAM-based solution developed by CSIRO.  I blogged about a backpack solution for indoor mapping that Avideh Zakhor from the University of California Berkeley had developed for navigating inside a building, generating floor plans, distinguishing rooms, identifying staircases, texture mapping surfaces, identifying windows, finding heat sources such as computers and human occupants, identifying lights, and even estimating plug load lower consumption - all automatically.

 

At this year's SPAR3D conference Stefan Hrabar from CSIRO described a project he has been working on that combines autonomous navigation with LiDAR-based SLAM to enable drones to safely navigate autonomously without GNSS in areas with complex geometrical structures.  This enables missions that the UAV can do with no pilot intervention.  Some examples that have been implemented include rainforest surveys - looking for invasive species, telco (cell phone) tower inspection and mapping, construction site monitoring including inside buildings, and underground mine mapping, especially, vertical, hard to access shafts called stopes.  For example, Stefan showed a demonstration of telco tower mapping where the UAV was placed near a telco tower, a button pushed to initiate the flight, and the drone mapped the tower without any human intervention.

 

Hovermap is the CSIRO application that provides a SLAM-based 3D LiDAR mapping payload for small UAVs.  It provides omnidirectional collision avoidance, advanced autonomy, and the ability to operate in GNSS-denied areas.  Hovermap uses a rotating LiDAR to produce a virtual spherical shield around the UAV.  Real-time SLAM makes it possible for the drone to navigate in complex geometric environments  without GPS, while the on-board autonomy makes possible mission execution without human intervention.  Some aplications include construction site mapping (inside buildings and outside), underground mine mapping and transmission line mapping and monitoring.

Construction industry poised for rapid digitization

The CG/LA Infrastructure Leadership Forum in Montreal has provided a fascinating glimpse into what is happening around the world in infrastructure from a technology, financing, and business model perspective. . From 50,000 feet the big item is that the construction industry may be at the tipping point with respect to digitization.

PPP

Probably the highlight of the event is the success of PPP projects, especially in Canada.  About one quarter of major infrastructure projects in Canada are PPP.  In the U.S. the PPP model works well in some jurisdictions, for example, the Port Authority of New New York and New Jersey.  In some states PPP is illegal and even at the federal taxation level until recently there were tax regulations that hindered the adoption of the PPP model.  The presentations made clear that there are multiple PPP models.   Several projects in Latin America were looking at PPP alternatives that were better suited to their jurisdictions.  A conference attendee from Nigeria was clearly very interested in which of the PPP models were appropriate in his country.

Investment in infrastructure

Big numbers were on virtually every speaker's lips.  The Canadian Federal government intends to invest $180 billion over ten years in infrastructure, the Quebec government $87 billion, President Trump threw out $1 trillion over five years in a state of the union speech a few days ago, Boston Consulting Group has estimated that there is a spending gap of $1 trillion annually, and the ASCE estmates that US infrastructure requires an investment of $4 million just to make up for the lack of maintenance over the past decades. Some speakers made a convincing case that these estimates are overblown. Whatever the numbers there was a consensus that there is a very large need for investment in infrastructure. 

But infrastructure, while among the top ten priorities for Americans, is not up there with jobs and the economy.  The Boston Consulting Group estimates that there are 15.4 million jobs in the infrastructure industry.  On average these are better paying than the average blue collar job.  The BCG modeling suggests that $ 1 trillion invested in infrastructure could get this up to 19 to 20 million jobs.  To get attention infrastructure has to be about jobs.

The good news is that there was a consensus that there is a lot of money looking for infrastructure projects. One speaker estimated ten times as much money as projects to invest in.  The holdups appear to be:
1) Permitting - Few are willing to commit money to projects that don't have the requisite permitting in place.  In the U.S. that process requires on average 9.5 years, but can take up to 15 years.
2) Social licence - These days it is not enough to simply get the state, federal, presidential, US Army Corps of Engineers and other regulatory permits.  It is necessary to get a social licence which means actively seeking buyin from the community.  For example, the Plains and Eastern Tennessee transmission line project has been supported by the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations as well as local landowners and other stakeholders.  Sometimes opposition comes from unexpected sources.  Clean Line's several big transmission projects have sometimes been filed against by the local utilities companies whose service territory the line crosses.
3) Business case - Investors are looking for a low risk investment with a good return.  That means that benefits to various stakeholders have to be identified and stakeholders brought into the project to spread the risk and reduce it for any one participant.

A lot of this money is private from domestic and international sources.  Japan and Saudi Arabia were both mentioned as sources of money for infrastructure investment.  Canadian pension funds are active in investing in infrastructure internationally.  To attract private funding infrastructure projects will have to generate returns, and that will drive investment in technology to improve productivity.

U.S. infrastructure market

Another highlight of the conference was Dan Rule's presentation on the Trump Transition Team's recommendation for infrastructure development in the next four years, which I blogged about previously.

Interestingly what Trump decides to do with respect to infrastructure may not be all that important. In the U.S. the federal government is not by any measure the biggest player in the infrastructure market - it only represents about 10% of the market. The big player is local governments. Local government has enormous power to choose projects, raise money and borrow money. This local autonomy is baked into the Constitution. Local governments decide on infrastructure projects and then float (tax deductible) bond issues to finance them.  The muni bond market is $3.2 trillion and is the second largest debt market.  There is good news here as well. The majority of the bond issues at the local level to fund infrastructure projects are successful in raising the necessary money through rates.State governments are also big players in the infrastructure market.  One speaker recommended to vendors and consultants looking for opportunities in the U.S. to look for municipalities who had recently successfully floated bond issues or states that had increased the gas tax or counties that has implemented a sales tax. In some states the state government and local governments are collaborating to fix all bridges in need of rehabilitation rather than inefficient one-offs by individual municipalities and counties. 

Large infrastructure projects

There are some very innovative large infrastructure projects around the world that were profiled at the conference.  I was very impressed that the long-haul transmission business appears to be coming to life in the U.S.  This business is not being driven by the incumbent power utilities, but by new players like Clean Line.  Geospatial technology underpins transmission line siting, transportation, and increasingly horizontal construction as drones, scanners, 3D visualization and other digital technology transforms the construction industry.

Technology

From a technology perspective just about every speaker referred to the lack of progress on productivity in the construction industry. Engineering and construction are second from the bottom on the IT adoption chart. But Wipro, Booz Allen Hamilton, Aconex,  Jacobs, and other vendors and analyst McKinsey believe that the construction industry is poised for the digitization revolution.  Vendors are investing heavily in technology including artificial intelligence, digital modeling such as BIM and full lifecycle BIM or BIM++ as one speaker referred to it, machine learning, drones, neural networks, virtual reality, big data, analytics, automation and hyperautomation.

GIS has been widely used by utilities for years for automated mapping/facilities management, back office records management, asset management, transmission line siting, and more recently for design and construction, energy conservation, vegetation management, mobile workforce management (MWFM), and outage management (OMS). Now, utilities are integrating GIS with automated meter infrastructure (AMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Intelligent design has crossed over from the office to the field in utilities, also enabled by the capabilities of GIS. Geospatial-related analytics (spatial analytics) is seen as one of the key aspects of success for electric utility operations in the smart grid era. Looking for patterns and correlations between different land, weather, terrain, assets, and other types of geodata will be increasingly important for utilities. Power-related analytics with geospatial components include network fault tracing, load flow analysis, Volt/VAR analysis, real-time disaster situational awareness, condition-based maintenance, and vegetation management.

As an example, PrecisionHawk is not only selling drone services but the geoanalytics to extract useful, actionable information. One of their targets is the construction industry and they intend to fit their solutions into existing workflows.  For example, a drone can collect aerial imagery of a stockpile, and the software provided by PrecisionHawk enables the volume of the stockpile to be calculated from the imagery without the user having to know much about drones, imagery, meshes or algorithms for calculating stockpile volumes.  PrecisionHawk also have an FAA permit for beyond-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone flights. (I already blogged about the pilot flights that Xcel Energy also has an FAA permit for.) This suggests the next step will be drone data collection and geospatial analytical applications based on this data for linear construction projects.