Power & Utilities Service Solutions
MFE Inspection Solutions offers advanced comprehensive solutions for everything from water tank storage to reservoirs & renewable energy. These services are often hard to access and must be inspected promptly. MFE offers training in many simulated environments at various training facilities throughout North America.
Table of Contents:
ROV Water Tank Maintenance & Inspection
Typically, water tanks are drained and taken out of service while contractors inspect, clean, and disinfect them. Fortunately, we now have access to small portable ROV systems that can help reduce downtime and provide us with the necessary accessories to ensure tank cleanliness and integrity.
Water Tank ROV Applications:
Water Tank Cleaning
Water Tank Remote Inspection
Water Tank Remote Ultrasonic Testing
Drone Solar Panel Inspection
Solar Inspections increase the efficiency of modern solar power plants. However, solar panel inspections are timely and costly due to the workforce needed for inspection and maintenance. Often, with the vast amount of solar panels within a solar farm, only a small percentage of solar panels could be checked for cleanliness and damage because of the lack of personnel or diverting of staff. Luckily today, we have acquired new methods of inspection using aerial imaging and extra sensory equipment.
Solar Panel Drone Inspection Applications:
Thermal Imaging Panel Inspection
Many solar farms have started adopting the Matrice 300 drone with an H20T camera system to check for thermal irregularities, which can identify potential hot spots indicating electrical and non-electrical problems. The H20T camera system is a hybrid-based system featuring a 23x hybrid optical zoom so that visual images can be captured in tandem with thermal images.
Thermal Imaging Inspection Mapping
Companies like Pix4D and Drone Deploy are essential when reporting, noting, and analyzing data collected by drones. For example, mapping software helps drone pilots autonomously produce trending inspection reports to see changes over time which comes in handy when maintaining solar panels. In addition, high-resolution images can be captured in thermal for proofing indication, and geotags can be placed to quickly guide faculty to the exact location.
Unmanned Hydropower Plant Inspection
Hydropower plants are often owned by governments or large private companies and are tasked with converting the kinetic energy of falling water into electricity to power our homes and cities. Hydropower plants contribute to 17% of our global electricity. Due to the severity of a system failure, larger hydropower plants may want to conduct more in-depth inspections and MFE has the solutions.
Hydropower Plant Inspection Applications:
Underwater ROV Inspection of Intakes, Walls & Turbines
Underwater Remote Operated Vehicles are basically tethered underwater drones that can provide HD video, sonar imagery, and more to help assess structures even in confined, dark, and murky environments.
Drone Inspection of Surge Tanks, Penstocks, and Flood Gates
Industrial indoor and outdoor inspection drones are commonly used to collect images to verify the integrity of various areas in a dam, such as surge tanks, water canals, penstocks, and flood gates.
Wind Farm Inspection
Wind turbines are a growing source of renewable energy as countries around the world are becoming more conscious about energy consumption. According to the United States Department of Energy, wind could account for 35% of the U.S. energy supply. As the demand for wind turbines increases, so does the need for regular inspection to address defects. Many components of wind turbines require non-destructive testing as well as visual inspections.
Wind Farm Inspection Applications:
UT Wind Turbin Blade Inspection
Blades are not only subjected to high stress during operation but can also have inherent manufacturer defects. These defects can be challenging to find without the proper instrumentation. Phased Array Systems such as the Omniscan X3 is specifically designed to identify small defects in high resolution making this Ultrasonic Testing system the most optimal method for wind turbine blade inspections.
ECT Wind Turbine Blade Inspection
Eddy Current Testing instruments can best detect surface-level flaws amongst wind turbine blades and is often the preferred method of inspecting weld seams.
Drone Wind Turbine Inspection
As part of the maintenance process, drone inspection of wind turbines can detect blade delamination, internal component failures, and other vital defects. In addition, drone inspections of wind turbines provide more detailed data than traditional inspection methods and can speed up the inspection process.
Drone Power Line Inspection
Power lines and transmission towers are prone to malfunction due to lightning strikes and flooding. Drones and thermal imaging technologies have increased the efficiency of reducing risk, providing routine inspections, and locating critical flaws.
Power Line Inspection Applications:
Drone Power Line Inspections
Drones can be easily deployed and detect power line faults night or day with optical and digital zoom technology, spotlights, and radiometric thermal imaging cameras that capture multiple angles so no crucial details are missed.
Electrical Specific Thermography
MFE Inspection Solutions hosts ITC thermography certification courses specific to power inspections. Learn how to apply thermal imaging when inspecting breakers, transformers, bus ducts, conductors, cables, motors, bearings, solar panels, outdoor utilities, and other electrical equipment. Visit our infrared training page for more information.
Contact MFE Inspection Solutions
If you work in the Power and Utilities Industry and have a special project that requires a custom solution, contact an MFE branch office near you.