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