An FAA rule will revolutionize energy infrastructure inspections. It just got a big boost.

On a windy November day in 2018, a small C-shaped suspension hook on a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. transmission line in Butte County, California, failed. Releasing the insulator assembly, it took only a few small sparks to ignite the brush below, which was exceptionally dry due to low moisture levels in the area in the days and weeks before.

The consequence of this one small equipment failure, deemed a result of poor inspections, was a wildfire that ultimately took 85 lives, caused roughly $16 billion in damage and brought down a sizeable energy company. It’s a situation that no one ever wants to relive, and yet, equipment failures remain an enduring threat across the aging grid.

While inspections are conducted frequently and rigorously, catching early warning signs across thousands of miles of infrastructure is a mammoth task. Current preventive practices are based on the deployment of crewed helicopters, either equipped with RGB cameras and LiDAR sensors, or they simply rely on the human eye to spot anomalies, from equipment changes to encroaching vegetation threats. With all of this effort already behind inspections, it’s easy to wonder how they can be improved to better protect against future catastrophic failures of critical infrastructure. The answer is unmanned aerial vehicles.

UAVs have a few very important differences compared with the crewed helicopters that conduct energy infrastructure inspections today. Their widespread use depends on the passing of a critical Federal Aviation Administration rule that’s long been in the works. Thanks to a new executive order, however, it may be here sooner than expected.

The large UAVs, also called drones, designed to carry heavy sensor payloads and conduct critical infrastructure inspections may look like helicopters from the outside, but the way they fly sets them entirely apart.

Unlike manned helicopters, UAVs can be automated to fly identical flight patterns repeatedly — not just following the same powerline, but maintaining the exact same position in space — which has significant implications for the data captured.

By retrieving vast quantities of data from the exact same vantage points repeatedly, the evaluation of these data sets can be automated. Companies can use AI to identify changes and to create highly accurate digital twins that reveal information invisible to the human eye — such as early indications of erosion based on just a few inches of terrain movement, for example. These micro-changes can often be the earliest warning signs of forthcoming equipment failures, and they can alert maintenance crews to attend to the highest priority fixes.

UAVs can also remove the crew risk, significantly reduce fuel burn, and are more cost-efficient than manned helicopters — so why aren’t they the new standard for inspections across the industry?

Part 108 is the FAA’s forthcoming regulation for beyond visual line of sight commercial drone operations. In other words, it’s the FAA’s answer to standardizing when drones can fly outside of an operator’s visual range for use cases like critical infrastructure inspection or drone deliveries.

This regulation has been anticipated for several years, but the agency has been up against changing administrations and complex dependencies, all while developing a set of rules that needs to be right from the start.

A new executive order President Donald Trump issued June 6 will accelerate the timeline for Part 108’s approval. The “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” order requires:

• A BVLOS rule proposal within 30 days of the order release date and a final rule within 240 days.
• The establishment of clear metrics for assessing the performance and safety of BVLOS operations within 30 days.
• The identification of and proposed recommendations related to any associated BVLOS barriers within 180 days.
• The use of AI tools to assist in and expedite the review of UAS waiver applications.
• And the immediate exploration of options to ensure that UAS flights in the U.S. can operate without being subject to onerous requirements of manned aircraft engaging in international navigation.

This powerful new instruction means the energy industry will likely have widespread BVLOS allowances much sooner than previously expected. It also means the time is now for utilities and infrastructure management companies to evaluate what integrating UAVs into their inspection capabilities will look like.

The next generation of infrastructure inspections will be here before we know it, and it’ll be safer than ever before.