EDP’s Energy Starter program accelerates the global energy transition by fostering innovation through collaboration with startups. This open innovation initiative connects EDP business units with startups and scale-ups to accelerate the adoption of impactful solutions to pressing challenge of the energy transition.
About the Project
In 2019, EDP’s innovation team identified a need for new methods to inspect overhead power lines, especially those passing through forested areas. Helicopter inspections, while effective, were costly and posed operational risks. To address this, the team turned to the Energy Starter program and identified Hepta Insights, an Estonian startup offering a promising solution to optimize the entire inspection process—from image capture to post-inspection report creation.
Hepta’s solution uses advanced technologies for the inspection of energy assets:
- Visual Inspection: AI and computer vision algorithms process drone-captured images to automatically identify visual anomalies;
- Thermographic Inspection: Infrared images detect abnormal heating points in the network, indicating potential imminent failures. These points are georeferenced and classified by severity for prioritized repairs;
- LiDAR Inspection: Data collected is used to create a 3D reconstruction of the power line and its surroundings, identifying violations of mandatory safety distances, such as vegetation proximity.
By 2020, E-REDES, EDP’s Distribution System Operator (DSO), partnered with Hepta to explore drone-based inspections of medium and high voltage power lines. This collaboration led to the creation of the GridDrone pilot project in 2021, which successfully validated drone technology for power line inspections across 1,000 km of networks in Portugal. The results revealed significant improvements in safety, quality, efficiency, and lowered CO2 emissions compared with the existing helicopter-based method.
Impactful Collaboration
Given the successful outcomes of the project, Hepta Insights was contracted to perform the data-capture of power line inspections in Portugal, integrating the process of the current service provider of E-REDES for powerline inspection, EDP Labelec.
In 2023, Hepta inspected trough Labelec, over 5000 km of medium voltage aerial networks, contributing to a total of 11,500 km of electrical lines inspected by E-REDES using drones, surpassing the 11,000 km inspected by helicopters.
In 2024, E-REDES inspected over 12,500 km of power lines using drones, with half of these inspections conducted by Hepta Insights. This collaboration, facilitated by the Energy Starter program, underscores the value of connecting EDP’s business units with innovative startups to fast-track the adoption of technological advancements in the energy sector. By integrating drone technology, E-REDES is enhancing the efficiency and safety of its inspections, while also contributing to a more sustainable energy future.
