RTE has been implementing helicopter IR inspections on its grid for tens of years. RTE' french grid is made of more than 100 000 km of overhead powerlines from 63kV to 400kV. About 20 000km are flown every year and RTE a…
ims to increase this annual rate. There are two goals for these IR inspection flights : - Detecting hot spots which are usually overheating components resulting from a default on the material - Measuring the temperature elevation to define the emergency level for a maintenance action Typical flights
: - during winter while electricity demand is higher - flight along the overhead powerlines for hot spot detection - hover (stop) when a hot spot is detected for a static temperature measurement 15 to 20m away from the target RTE which to