New Simulyze infographic highlights benefits of commercial drones for utilities to perform maintenance, inspections, storm damage assessments and more
RESTON, VA – Simulyze, a leading provider of operational intelligence technology and applications that empower both federal agencies and commercial organizations, today released a new infographic for utilities professionals. It features the many benefits of using commercial drones to do the often-dangerous work of inspecting, maintaining and repairing power lines, transmission towers, wind turbines and solar panels. Titled, “7 Reasons Why the Utilities Industry Should Be Employing Drones,” the infographic is free to download at http://www.simulyze.com/7-reasons-why-the-utilities-industry-should-be-employing-drones.
"Utilities across the country are beginning to see the vast potential for drones to reduce costs, improve safety, increase reliability and more quickly analyze malfunctions,” said Kevin Gallagher, CEO of Simulyze. “While utilities currently conduct most maintenance operations by manual, visual inspection, many are now using drones for a number of activities traditionally performed by helicopters and third parties, such as maintenance, line inspections and storm damage assessments. Recent developments by the FAA have really helped pave the way toward more cost-effective UAS-based infrastructure maintenance."
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects that the number of unmanned aircraft, or drones, in the United States will jump dramatically over the next five years. The government agency estimates the commercial drone fleet will grow from 42,000 at the end of 2016 to about 442,000 aircraft by 2021. The FAA also predicts the number of pilots of drones is expected to increase from 20,000 in 2016 to a range of 10 to 20 times as many by 2021. The White House said last year unmanned aircraft could lead to $82 billion in economic growth by 2025 and support up to 100,000 jobs.
The FAA implemented its Part 107 small UAS rule in June 2016 for drones weighing less than 55 pounds that are being flown for “routine non-hobbyist use.” Part 107 stipulates: drones have to remain in visual line of sight of the pilot; pilots must be at least 16 years old; operation is only allowed during daylight hours or twilight with appropriate lighting; maximum groundspeed of 100 mph and maximum altitude of 400 feet; pilots must hold a "remote pilot airman certificate” issued by the FAA.
About Simulyze:
Simulyze, Inc. is a leading provider of operational intelligence (OI) technology and applications that empower both federal and commercial organizations to make better, more strategic decisions in real-time. Simulyze’s flagship product, Mission Insight™ is built on its proprietary OI platform and the industry’s leading commercial off-the-shelf application that makes complete situational awareness easy to attain and easy to deploy. It processes and analyzes large streams of data from disparate sources to provide air, land and sea operators, commanders and managers with a common operating picture in a customized graphical interface. Since 2000, Simulyze’s OI technology has been deployed across numerous organizations worldwide, including the Department of Defense, the U.S. Intelligence community, Homeland Security and commercial UAS applications. For more information, visit http://www.simulyze.com or follow on Twitter @Simulyze.
