Power station inspections in Hong Kong with the Elios

# Power Plant Inspections in Hong Kong with the Elios ## Benefits at a Glance ### Speed For power plants, especially those with towering structures like turbine halls, boilers, and chimneys, setting up scaffolding used to take several days. Thanks to the lightweight and durable Elios drone, inspection teams can now complete assessments in just 1 or 2 days without the need for scaffolding. This innovation has drastically reduced the time required for inspections, making the entire process much faster. ### Cost Savings CLP Power has established its own drone team, performing inspections in-house. By eliminating the need for scaffolding during high-altitude and hard-to-reach inspections, the team has saved millions of dollars. Additionally, a single drone flight can capture both LiDAR and visual data or visual and thermal imagery, offering a more comprehensive analysis of power generation assets. ### Safety The requirement for work at heights during inspections has been completely eliminated, significantly reducing the need for scaffold erection. This shift keeps inspection teams safely grounded, minimizing risks associated with working at elevated levels. ### Access The Elios 3 drone has made accessing high-rise assets such as boilers over 30 meters tall, as well as underground or confined space assets like silos or pipes, much easier. This advancement allows for more thorough inspections without the logistical challenges previously faced. --- CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power), founded in 1901, reliably supplies electricity to over 80% of Hong Kong’s population—approximately 7.4 million people. Operating a vertically integrated power supply business in the city, CLP Power covers electricity generation, transmission and distribution, and marketing and customer services. Committed to ensuring a reliable power supply, CLP Power invests significant effort into maintaining the smooth operation of its power generation units and auxiliary facilities. However, due to the unique and complex environment of power stations, traditional manual inspections present certain limitations and challenges. Since 2016, CLP Power's engineering teams have explored innovative technologies and pioneered the use of drones for power station inspections. Over the past five years, they have collaborated with Elios drones to streamline indoor inspections at their sites while collecting extensive data to improve the operational safety and efficiency of power generation equipment. This approach helps assess the health and wear-and-tear of equipment, reducing the need for work at height and in confined spaces to keep operations running smoothly. Read on for CLP Power's journey. --- ## Discovering Drones for Indoor Inspections Power stations house large and complex generation units and auxiliary facilities, featuring high-rise structures, extensive assets, and underground components. As the hub of technical expertise powering the company’s power stations with essential engineering services, one of the focuses of CLP Power’s Generation Engineering Department is to explore, research, and implement advanced technologies for inspecting and maintaining ongoing projects and assets, ensuring the power plants remain in optimal condition. Recalling 2018, CLP Power Director of Generation Engineering Ng Ki-on mentioned that his team was keen to explore whether more innovative inspection methods could be adopted to reduce the reliance on scaffolding during work-at-height or confined space inspections. Their goal was to find an alternative that was more streamlined and could be operated internally, rather than depending on external service providers. CLP Power had already utilized drones for inspecting outdoor generation facilities since 2016. However, outdoor drones depend on GPS for navigation, limiting their use indoors where GPS signals are often unavailable. Moreover, any collision involving an outdoor drone in an indoor area housing generation facilities could damage both the drone and the facilities it hits. Realizing these constraints, the engineering team began evaluating various indoor drone brands. Through discussions with Dronesurvey Asia, they discovered the Elios drones, which showcased the capability for stable, contact-free inspections while maintaining a safe distance from objects without relying on GPS. Inspired by this discovery, they envisioned applying the drone to inspect boilers, smokestacks, turbine halls, and other indoor assets of the power plants. --- ## Building a Drone Program at a Power Plant When the Elios 2 was introduced to the site, Ki-on’s team was intrigued by its potential. They began developing workflows and plans for when and how the drone could assist in inspections. The collision tolerance of the Elios 2 allowed the engineering team to confidently operate in complex environments within the generation units, from indoor stockpile measurements to boilers reaching up to 30 meters in height. In 2022, with the launch of the Elios 3, the engineering team acquired the new model to take advantage of the combined LiDAR and visual payload for more efficient inspections.  *The Elios 3 at work at a CLP Power site.* Ki-on added, “When we first considered drones, some people thought we were looking for recreational UAVs for industrial tasks. But with these cage drones, we proved that drones were far from recreational toys but rather powerful tools that helped streamline indoor inspections and enhanced the safety of the work.” --- ## A Permanent Role for Drones in Power Plant Inspections With inspection workflows firmly established, Ki-on’s team now regularly uses the Elios drones for inspecting assets such as: - Boilers - Indoor storage areas - Pump pits - General site inspections The Elios drones have made inspections more efficient and safer. For instance, boiler inspections once required scaffolding and were time-consuming, leading to prolonged downtimes. Now, the Elios 3 can inspect boilers from both inside and outside within a single day, allowing for seamless progress with further inspections or maintenance work as needed. Similarly, a pump pit inspection previously required confined space work, draining the water inside, and erecting scaffolding. With the Elios drone, it is possible to complete a scan quickly without draining the pit.  *An inspection with an Elios 2 drone.* The engineering team has used the Elios 2 for simultaneous thermal and visual inspections, and the Elios 3 to collect side-by-side visual and LiDAR data. Overall, inspections are not only faster and safer but also generate larger volumes of higher-quality data. --- ## What’s Next? Ki-on is enthusiastic about the future of drones in inspections. “I can see a lot of potential applications. I expect that with data collection, we will soon see artificial intelligence (AI) being used to help complete in-depth analyses and save time. This will be particularly useful for people who gather a lot of data and don’t have the best systems in place to sort through it.” Recently, CLP Power hosted a media briefing on the applications of Elios drones alongside their other tools for enhancing safety and productivity. The media coverage sparked discussions in Hong Kong, and some local government departments and organizations expressed interest in learning more about the drone’s use in daily operations. Discover more about the Elios 3 and its specialized LiDAR payload. All images in this article are credited to CLP Power. --- This article highlights how drones like the Elios are revolutionizing power plant inspections in Hong Kong, improving efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

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