Cyberhawk uses drones to inspect utilities safety

Cyberhawk has launched more than 22,000 drone flights to inspect nearly 25,000 electric utility structures in the Western U.S. through the first six months of 2021, as part of utilities critical wildfire prevention and reliability campaigns, the company said.

They said that they are working with the  largest electric utility companies in California to "ensure" the stability of the state’s electric networks and reduce wildfire risks. This involves the drone inspection of around 30,000 structures being carried out in 2021.

"We can fly drones to capture the highest quality imagery during inspections or take third-party drone or helicopter data and use our powerline-focused software, iHawk, to provide our customers with the analysis, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions about their networks," said Phil Buchan, Chief Operating Officer (COO) in an interview with his company.

Cyberhawk, has been using drones to inspect the power utility industry, both in the UK, US, and beyond since 2009.Since the U.S. power grid is one of the oldest in the world, 70 percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old. Therefore, in early 2020, Cyberhawk initiated a program that will should carry out drone inspections of over 50,000 transmission structures, to collect and manage terabytes of inspection data for a large Western utility.