LIDAR APPLICATIONS IN THE ELECTRICAL POWER INDUSTRY 
Zujian. Xu, Feng. Yang, Yong. Huang, Zizheng. Wang ,Yanjing. Liu 
Guangxi G-Energy Information Engineering Co. Ltd., No.lO,Jianzheng Road,Nanning ,guangxi - 
China-cqken@ 163 .com 
KEY WORDS: Lidar, Route Design Optimization, Powerline Checking, Asset Management 
ABSTRACT: 
For the moment the total length of Chinese powerline is at the second place of the whole world. During the Eleventh Five-Year 
Plan the government will enhance the construction of power grid to supply the national needs for electrical power. Therefore, how 
to efficiently construct and manage these long lines is an imperative problem. Based on its advantages of quickly acquiring of high 
precise point clouds and digital photos LiDAR technology makes the new powerline trend choosing and the checking, asset 
management and analysis of constructed lines more convenient than the conventional remote sensing methods. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Recent years, with the fast development of Chinese economy the need 
for electricity increased highly, which made the construction of power 
grid more necessary. By the end of 2004 the powerline length whose 
capacity was above llOkV was about 500 thousands kilometers. For 
500kV was 50 thousands kilometers. For 330kV was 12 thousands 
kilometers. For 220kV was 170 thousands kilometers. The whole length 
was the second longest in the world[l]. 
At the same time how to manage the constructed lines efficiently and 
make them work normally to transfer electricity safely became more 
important. Power accident would do harm to not only power grid 
company’s profit but also the whole society. 
LiDAR technology was another revolution in remote sensing after GPS. 
It could get high precise laser clouds and digital photos, which combined 
with GIS technology would be widely used in power grid construction 
and management. 
LiDAR system involved 3D laser scanner and aerial camera. It used 
laser ranging and aerial photography theory to acquire big area 3D data. 
Its fast, few out-work, precise, high automatic and real reflection of 
terrain advantages made the production of DEM, DSM and DOM more 
quickly. 
For the whole process of a new power grid construction Lidar could be 
used to Route design Optimization, Staking design Optimization and 
building. LiDAR digitalized reconnaissance, design and construction 
production which could support powerline 3D visualization 
management and professional analysis. 
For the constructed power grid we could reconstruct the powerline and 
corridor precisely and measure the distance between terrain to powerline 
to find the dangerous points. Also we can use LiDAR to complete 
powerline 3D visualization management and professional analysis. 
2. APPLICATION 
2.1 Application in a new powerline 
2.2 1 Methods 
For power grid construction the conventional process included planning, 
line design, staking design and construction etc. The data came from 
manual draw or aerial photography. Through this way the data was not 
visible, low precise and could not be reused. It could only suit the every 
process’s need but could not support power gird post-construction 
management. 
LiDAR for route design optimization included data acquiring, data 
processing and design optimization etc. 
(1 )raw data acquiring: 
This included setting flight plan before taking off, installation of GPS, 
measuring of laser scanner, INS system and camera etc. 
Figure 1 .the LiDAR system Figure 2.point clouds and image