Iberdrola and Arbórea promote a new model of digital inspection of power lines in Salamanca

23 May 2018

This morning, Iberdrola and the company Arbórea Intellbird presented their new technological development aimed at improving power line inspection models at the Sierra de Dueña wind farm in Salamanca.

In addition to the use of the ‘Arachnocóptero’, the drone that “has revolutionised the inspection of wind turbine blades”, the ‘PowerGrids’ software is used for evacuation lines in wind farms, which allows the digitalisation of assets and facilitates deferred inspection in a “more reliable way”, while providing the application of data from analysis systems based on vision and artificial intelligence, to detect and measure hidden structural problems such as corrosion, hot spots or other deficiencies in critical elements.

According to the energy company, the new ‘Arachnocóptero’ model, to fly greater distances over the power lines, allows, together with the new ‘software’, also designed by the Salamanca company, “to increase the efficiency of maintenance inspections of wind installations, reducing downtime and achieving a level of detail much higher than that of traditional inspection methods”.

The digital ‘maps’ obtained from the layout of the lines, of “very high resolution”, are processed and made available to Iberdrola Renovables through the same software application and cloud reports, which facilitates the integration of automatic and intelligent defect management, he said.

The associated mobile application ‘Power-eye’ introduces augmented reality so that repairers can find the defects identified in the lines, “simply by observing the line with the help of a simple mobile phone”, according to Iberdrola.

The innovative inspection methodology based on the digitalisation of assets allows strategic decisions to be centralised and efficient control to be generated with a focus on predictive intervention on defects.

“These first experimental experiences carried out on Iberdrola Renovables’ power lines provide valuable data to assess the viability of a new inspection model”, he said in the information provided after the presentation in Salamanca.

“An essential factor for Iberdrola is the reduction of risks by avoiding the need for inspection personnel to climb onto electrical supports,” he said, in addition to emphasizing that the new digital inspection model seeks to “increase reliability in the control of assets.”

This innovative initiative has been carried out experimentally in the emblematic Sierra de Dueña wind farm, some 40 kilometers from Salamanca. This Iberdrola facility has a capacity of 31.5 megawatts (MW) and is located between the municipalities of Pedrosillo de los Aires, Frades de la Sierra, Las Veguillas and Membribe de la Sierra. This complex is made up of 37 wind turbines and has a substation from which the electricity is evacuated.

Source: La Vanguardia (Europa Press)