PECO UAS Program

EAPA T&D Committee

March 12, 2019

Aileen Gallagher

Engineer

Investment Strategy R&D

PECO Drone 101

✓ Lingo

• UAV = unmanned aerial vehicle

• UAS = unmanned aerial system

---> DRONES

✓ By the numbers

• 5 drones (4 in OHT; 1 in distribution)

• 8 certified pilots

• 45+ missions to date

2

PECO Drone Status by System3

Transmission

Regular use for spot inspections

Second look at potential issues identified from an inspection

Distribution

Piloting applications to identify best

value

Looking for ways to improve

circuits with reliability issues

Gas

Investigating initial pilot

Does it make sense to inspect any of our gas

mains with drones?

4So you want to use drones… where to start?

1. What are our goals?

2. Who should be on the team?

3. What does it mean to be a ‘PECO Qualified’ pilot?

4. Where does it make the most sense?

5. How to operationalize?

1. Define the goals

✓ What are you trying to do?

✓ Why are you trying to do it?

✓ Who will it benefit?

5

2018 Proposed Goals

Support PECO Operations, Reliability, Standards, and Vegetation Management ability to enhance system management. Specifically:

✓ Continue to conduct OHT spot inspections

✓ Get 4 pilots licensed (1 per region + 1 in Central Engineering)

✓ Target 15-20 asset inspections in 2018

• Standards Audits (summer critical, winter critical, Hendrix) -> 6-8

• TPCs (identify flyable circuit on monthly TPC call) -> 10-12

• Visual inspection only for now

✓ Define “PECO UAS Qualified”

✓ Promotional materials for R&D projects

✓ Provide asset images to UAS working groups (e.g., EPRI), to support development of asset health intelligence

6

2. Pick the team

✓ Who could leverage a drone?

✓ Who’s interested in pursuing a drone license?

✓ Who could identify operational concerns?

7

8PECO UAS Organization

Distribution

Lead: R&D Engineer

✓ Regional Engineers

✓ Distribution

Supervisor

✓ Gas Engineer

✓ Addt’l team

members: Central

Eng. Engineers,

Regional Engineers,

Application Support,

AeroLabs

Gas

Lead: Gas Engineer

PECO SPOC: OHT Engineer

OHT

Lead: OHT Engineer

✓ UG Transmission

Supervisor

✓ OHT Foreman

✓ Aerial Lineman

Phone a friend

✓ Exelon has a monthly UAV working group

• AeroLabs

• Exelon Utilities

• Exelon Generation

• Legal, IT, GIS, Security, etc.

✓ Industry groups & meetings (e.g., EPRI)

9

10

✓ What testing do pilots need to complete?

✓ What capabilities should pilots demonstrate before they

can fly around live assets?

✓ What training do the pilots need?

3. Outline the qualifications

Minimum requirement: FAA Part 107 License11

Applicable for commercial drone use (e.g., any use by a utility)

✓ Background check

✓ Aeronautical knowledge exam

• General regulations

• Interpreting airspace & charts

• Aeronautical decision making

• Weather

• Airport Operations

• UAS Best Practices

Licensed ≠ Ready to Fly for PECO

✓ The licensure exam is written only

✓ With a limited number of part-time, in-house pilots, opted

for an external vendor to conduct training

12

Training Experience

✓ Selected a vendor who conducted utility-specific training

✓ Three days at PECO Line School –

• Day 1 – classroom-based – drone care best practices,

electromagnetic interference Q&A, emergency procedures, etc.

• Days 2-3 – hands-on – basic flight maneuvers, flight without GPS,

photography best practices, etc.

13

4. Demonstrate the value

✓ Avoided hazards

✓ Crew hours saved

✓ Helicopter flights avoided

✓ Potential outages prevented

✓ Promotional materials

14

15We’ve done spot inspections

Save time and reduce risk in conducting tower avian inspections

Extent of condition assessments16

Damage noticed on OPGW line – how much of the rest was damaged?

Storm Damage Assessments 17

Faster, safer response after a Nor-Easter

Technology demonstrations18

Substation thermography inspection provided actionable information

And even promotional shots19

http://davesalbum.com/Panos/Plymouth/Plymouth.htm

PECO Line School

But drones don’t make sense everywhere20

PECO supported a mutual assistance request in a veg-heavy area

Would a drone really add value here?21

Post-construction standards audit

The aerial view does help in some cases22

But what next?23

How do we integrate drones into our daily operations?

5. Operationalize

✓ Who do we need to notify before we fly?

✓ Where should we store the drones?

✓ How do we make this new tool accessible?

24

Check[list], please

✓ Airspace & weather checks

✓ Internal notifications

✓ IMSAFE checklist (fitness to fly)

✓ Battery life

✓ Site-specific precautions

✓ Post-flight notifications

25

What do we tell our customers?

✓ Pamphlet in the works –

PECO Drone Inspections

An Introduction to PECO’s Newest Workforce

• Benefits

• Basic safety

• Do’s and Don’t’s

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Current Challenges

✓ Will drones provide value to our PM program?

✓ How do we organize around UAS for storm response?

✓ With a limited number of (part-time) in-house pilots, where

best to focus time?

27

28Questions?

Appendix

29

Proposed Distribution Team 2018 Timeline30

✓ January – Assemble team

✓ February-March – Get 3-5 PECO personnel Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA) Licensed

✓ April – Conduct test flights & demo at a PECO facility

✓ April-December – Conduct 15-20 asset inspections

✓ December – Make recommendation on future UAS

purchases (e.g., one per region) & 2019 plans

Actual Distribution Team 2018 Timeline31

✓ January-February – Assemble team

✓ March-June – Got 3 PECO personnel Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA) Licensed

✓ June-August – First two missions flown*

✓ June-December – Discussions, IT approval, and

scheduling of hands-on training

✓ September-October – 2 more PECO pilots licensed

✓ December – Held practice flight time sessions for new

pilots; made recommendations on 2019 plans

*Pilot already had non-PECO experience