Powerline Patrol Service

Advantages

• Inspection of overall condition of structure (Primary Benefit)
• Potential to assess the presence and severity of structure component wear and remaining strength
• Inspection of exposed portions of foundations, guys, and anchors
• Evaluation of loose hardware
• Sounding and boring of wood poles near the ground
• Assessment of line encroachment or vegetation clearing concerns
• Evaluation of tracking and insulator damage using UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)
• Assessment of conductor clearances
• IR evaluation of conductors, splices and jumper hot-spots (Powerline Patrol Services)
• Basic evaluation of the integrity of connections in wooden components

Disadvantages

• Relatively time-consuming patrol (Primary Loss)
• Difficult to identify the presence and/or extent of several types of insulator degradation without UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)
• Difficult to identify the presence and/or extent of decay, corrosion, and/or wear at upper elevations of structures
• Inability to identify above ground internal problems in wood poles

• Inability to reliably identify bonding problems without UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)

• Poor structure access by ROW discourages close or multiple- angle viewing