Coles Co. electric company uses drones to keep lineman safe
MATTOON, Ill. (WCIA) — Utility line work and maintenance is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. One electric utility company in Mattoon sees its technology as a possible solution to keeping its workers safe.
Coles-Moultrie Electric Cooperative oversees electrical service to more than 8,000 people in Central Illinois. For three years, they’ve been using drones to make their jobs more efficient — and safer.
“Having that extra height gives us viewpoints that we otherwise couldn’t see,” said IT Director David Welsh. “And the quality of the cameras on the newer technology is much better. These things do a great job at it, helping to prevent outages and solving problems before the membership sees that.”
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Welsh said the thermal camera attached to one of the drones can help see issues before they start through heat signatures.
“It gives you a thermometer for every single pixel in that picture,” Welsh said. “So we can go back and later analyze that data and figure out just how hot different things are in those pictures.”
Amy Borntrager, the President and CEO of the company, said these drones will help to continue the goal of limiting danger when out on the job. The drones can get an overhead look and assess any damage before sending a lineman up to do maintenance.
“Safety is the number one initiative at our cooperative,” Borntrager said. “We want everyone to go home every night, so it is important if I can replace a task with a piece of technology in order to keep the guys on the ground, keep them from climbing the poles and keeping them safe.”
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The company had previously used handheld thermal imaging technology. Welsh said the drones make routine service much easier.
“If we have like a loose connection or something in a substation that could pose a hazard to them if they were working on or near that,” Welsh said. “So identifying things before they become issues or before we have people around different areas, it’s a great aspect for that, for safety.”
The company said a drone of this caliber can run upwards of $5,000. $4,000 is spent on the camera alone.
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