WIND TURBINEINSPECTIONS

The Sky Guys were approached by a multinational engineering firm to assist with the inspection of seventy-nine GE 1.5MW wind turbines, each 80m tall with 77m rotor diameter. The wind turbines were spread over 52,000 acres of farmland in Drumheller, AB. The purpose of the inspection was for damage classification and reporting.

The Scope of Work (SOW) required:

Capture of digital imagery/ video of live assets.
Preparation of data for technical analysis, in accordance with the scope under the engagement contract.

The client was given 3 weeks to inspect all 79 wind turbines. They chose to purchase a drone to perform the inspection and, over 2.5 weeks, completed 49 wind turbines. With less than 4 days remaining in the project timeline, we were hired to complete the remaining 30 wind turbines over 2 days.

WIND TURBINE INSPECTIONS - DRONE METHOD VS. TRADITIONAL INSPECTIONS

81%
TIME SAVINGS

71%
COST SAVINGS

Results

By conducting an inspection of live assets, we eliminated the requirement for a shutdown. Typically, each WTG is required to be shutdown to enable a human inspection on the exterior of the WTG itself, which is both time-consuming and dangerous. In this case, the engineering firm decided to use drones to eliminate the need for a shutdown, however they underestimated the time it would take for them to utilize the drone effectively. Their upfront cost for the drone / insurance / training was not included in the cost analysis. Below are a series of images we captured for our client. They represent the type of technical inspection data that was outlined in the engagement contract.

		The Sky Guys	Traditional
INSPECTION	Collecting raw site data for analysis.	2 days on site.	26 days on site.
REQUIRED LABOR	Teams and expertise required for fulfillment.	2-man team, pilot and sensor operator.	3-man team, including pilot, sensor operator ground engineers.
WTG SHUTDOWN	For measurement / analysis.	No shutdown required.	No shutdown required.
PROJECT FULFILLMENT	Data capture, production of actionable data, delivery	Completed on-site.	Completed on-site.
SAVINGS	81% time savings and 71% cost savings, matching inspection-grade accuracy.