Using LiDAR Data for Power Line Corridor Management in LiPowerline

Introduction

Routine inspection of power line corridor is critical for securing uninterrupted distribution of electricity. Traditional ground-based inspection methods, such as calculating the distance between the sag of the transmission wires and underlying vegetation using height measuring rods and theodolites, are labor-intensive, time-consuming, risky for field staffs, and insufficient in accuracy.

Recently, LiDAR technology has been utilized to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of power line corridor management. GreenValley International (GVI) provides a total solution of acquiring point cloud dataset of power line corridor using aerial and ground LiDAR system, and processing point cloud dataset using software designed for utility industry to inform decision-making in power line corridor management.

This tutorial provides an intuitive and time-efficient workflow to process the point cloud dataset, collected using GVI’s LiAir UAV LiDAR System, with GVI’s LiPowerline software to build 3D models for utility infrastructures, identify vegetation encroachments, simulate wire conditions under certain weather scenarios, predict tree fall hazards, and model vegetation growth pattern to predict potential hazard. This workflow has been used in many utility companies to upgrade their vegetation management solution.

Please follow the instructions in the tutorial to install LiPowerline software, download sample data, and complete the exercises with the sample data. It is recommended that you go through the entire tutorial to learn the concepts and tools, and then adopt it in daily workflow of your own organization and projects. However, with prerequisite sample data prepared for you in each exercise, you could start at any exercise in this tutorial to learn a specific workflow.

Software Download & Install

LiPowerline software is included in the GreenValley Suite. Please download the latest version of GreenValley Suite from the GreenValley International official website, and install and activate following instructions in the User Guide.

Sample data

The SampleData.zip folder provides sample datasets for the following exercise. Please unzip the compressed folder.

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