Source: Radio New Zealand
Four power lines companies are deploying drones linked to an artificial intelligence system to spot weak poles and lines.
They are linking in to Tapestry, a system created by Google to help maintain power grids and fix networks after natural disasters.
Northpower, the Orion Group, Unison Networks and WEL Networks have half a million customers.
They aim to train the AI on 10,000 images of 10 types of grid assets over the next two years.
“This technology will enhance our asset planning, help us dispatch crews with more efficiency, and ensure our teams know exactly what they are dealing with on every job,” Northpower chief executive Andrew McLeod said in a statement on Wednesday.
WEL chief executive Garth Dibley said by working together the four would improve overall network reliability and efficiency.
“By sharing our network data, asset imagery, engineering expertise and technology platforms, we’re enabling smarter AI solutions that no single EDB [energy distribution business] could achieve alone,” he said in a statement.
Auckland lines company Vector has been training the AI models on its network for several years, after Google chose New Zealand for its “moonshot” project.
At Vector, the [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570610/how-drones-could-cut-aucklanders-power-bills
inspection time at a power pole was cut] from 30-45 minutes to under 10 minutes.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570610/how-drones-could-cut-aucklanders-power-bills
Business website reports the new move as, ‘Alphabet-Led AI Project to Shield New Zealand Grid From Outages’.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
