Services for the power industry

Our services increase the value and availability in our customer's power networks, and we see how the emergency and disturbance issues decrease year after year for those who utilize our services for their preventive maintenance activities. We fly thousands of hours every year for our customers in the power industry, and have an extensive range of services specialized for this. Below you find presentations and descriptions of the different types of services we offer, all from inspections and preventive measures such as vertical- and horizontal sawing, to emergency measures such as removing fallen trees from the power lines with helicopter.

We love to be an active partner in the planning and design of our customer's preventive maintenance schemes. We know our business, and with HeliAir Sweden as your partner you will reduce the costs related to power-outs and disturbances!

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Power line inspections

We inspect approximately 5 000 kilometers of power lines each year. Traditionally, this is done together with an inspector from the customer but we also supply the inspector as well delivering the whole result.

Why HeliAir?

From early January until midsummer, we operate three to five helicopters performing power line inspections. Our mobile fuel organization trails the helicopters along the work, minimizing the need for ferry flights to and from airports for refueling. Since the endurance of a normal helicopter is around three hours, moving the fuel along with the work has an enormous impact on the whole project and save up to as much as each third flight hour. This together with our technicians handling the routine helicopter maintenance on site and outside production hours enables us to deliver more power line inspections per hour and cost than any other operator.

Knowing your work

HeliAir Sweden has the authority to train powerline inspectors as well as pilots according to the demands from the power industry, and we conduct a number of EBR courses every ear. In doing so, we have a close dialogue with the electricity industry, and thus always keep us abreast of the news and changes that govern the work in the electricity networks today.

Benefit: The customer

Thanks to the refueling of helicopters taking place along the planned route and routine maintenance is performed outside normal working hours, we reduce the calendar time for your inspection projects considerably. Your staff is released from the survey and return to their regular duties faster than with normal routines. The impact on the environment is reduced, while the inspections are considerably more cost-effective for you as a customer.

Safety and communications

We track and monitor all our helicopters whilst in the air, which considerably increase the safety of our pilots and their crews. Using satellite technology and GPS transmitters, our operational department follow the helicopter's, speed, direction and position in real-time, even if they are on the ground or if the helicopters electronics are switched off. As our customer you may, if desired, access our system tracking the helicopters inspecting your network. This simplifies the work for your operation and monitoring centers that stand for planning, monitoring and safety of the power line inspections.

We are in constant communication with our helicopters by radio and telephone, from start to finish of each day.

Power outage inspections

At least once or twice every year extreme winds hit some part of our country. With HeliAir Sweden as a partner you quickly sort out the situation, and resolve what measures that need to be taken when the storm had passed..

Already when a weather system is approaching, we mobilize the resources needed to quickly go to work as soon as it is possible to fly again. We always have pilots in service and/or stand-by, which allows us to quickly be in place even in situations of unexpected interruptions and disturbances. Our fleet consists of about a dozen helicopters that are always prepared, and under the conditions associated with a disturbance or power outage, our customers in the power industry are always top priority.

In addition to the above, we also offer unsurpassed cleaning and removal of fallen trees lying on the power line with our helicopter-borne hydraulic grab (see below) that lifts up, cuts and clears trees from the lines. To remove a tree lying across a power line usually takes less than half a minute. Read more below about our hydraulic grab...

Vertical saw

The most common reason for disturbances in the power network is an object coming in contact with the power line. Cutting away twigs and branches with a helicopter operated saw guarantees a disturbance free delivery for years to come...

Cutting twigs along the power line corridor from a helicopter...

Our helicopter operated vertical saws clear up to two kilometers (both sides) line corridor per hour. Removing the twigs and branches from the top of the trees offer a number of advantages compared to conventional cutting from the ground:

When you remove all branches from the top of the tree down to approximately one meter below the power line, the weight and balance in the tree is shifted away from the corridor. The trees always lean slightly outward from the power lines, and the more snow and ice weighting down the trees, the more they tilt, resulting in an even more open line corridor. When the conditions are at their worst, our cleared power line corridors are totally open and free from disturbances
Since we remove the branches all the way to the top of the trees, nothing remains that can fall down on the power line and cause damage or shortcuts
We clear up to two kilometers per hour, which is way much faster than any conventional method
No sawing is done from the ground, which eliminates the need for dialogue with land owners, logistics regarding access to properties etc. We handle everything from the helicopter
We remove all foliage down to approximately one meter below the power line. This leaves the lower branches intact, shading the line corridor and thereby inhibiting the undergrowth
All work is carried out with the power switched on in the network. No power-outs or disturbances of the delivery is needed when we perform our work
Ground conditions, terrain and accessibility are all irrelevant to us. The sawing will progress with the same speed as always regardless of the conditions in the line corridor

How long does it last?

The oldest remaining helicopter cleared line corridor in Sweden is situated a little bit outside Strömsund, and was cleared in the mid-90s. The condition of the line corridor is still very good, and there is no need to return in an umber of years, if ever. The period of time during a cleared line corridor remains open vary depending on type of foliage, but after clearing thousands of kilometers during the years, we have still not returned to any location where we've been...

Top saw

Unparallelled management of high voltage power line corridors with top saw.

Why cut down the whole tree?

Due to the higher voltage, the conditions required around the power lines distributing 30kV and above are somewhat different. The line corridor below the power lines are 15-20 meters wide, and the power distribution is secured by continuously harvesting the trees that reach a certain height so that they can't fall on the power lines. This is done by simply cutting down the trees from the ground and removing them.

Securing the power distribution this way require enormous resources every year. It is associated with lots of work for the network owner, who not only stands for all the logistics, but also compensation to landowners for the forest that is removed. Large values are lost when removing trees that would otherwise grow further and thus increase in value year after year, and from an environmental perspective it is even more difficult to defend.

Top sawing with an unequalled speed

We at HeliAir Sweden, together with one of our customers, have further developed and vastly improved the methods for peak cutting trees when managing the high voltage power line corridors. Using advanced technology to measure the height and positioning of trees along the power line creates a digital map database containing the trees that fall within the limits for logging. They are then shortened down to the length required with regards to a variety of factors that affect the growth of the trees on the actual location, and remain in place.

Under normal circumstances, we clear up to three kilometers power line corridor per hour. Both sides. Just as with the vertical saw, you get all the benefits that come from not having to access to the ground beneath the power line, and you as a customer are free of all practical handling associated with this.

Grip

There is no tool today that is more efficient than our hydraulic grapples when removing fallen trees from power lines. We clean a power line from fallen trees with a speed and precision that is impossible to imagine.

Vad is this thing Gripen?

Gripen is a patented claw with double hydraulic jaws and a guillotine that cuts off the gripped tree. It is designed and built to be mounted under a helicopter and operated by the pilot inside the cockpit, mainly for clearing fallen trees from power lines. When the tree has been cut, the lower part simply falls down under the power line, while the upper one is dropped down by the side of the power line in a suitable place.

When the storm has passed...

After a storm, you sometimes find that fallen trees are lying on top of the power lines. Efforts to remove these are both dangerous and time consuming, with long interruptions in the electricity supply as a consequence. Even a few trees may require a long time to clear away, especially if they are located in places that are remote or where ground conditions are not the most favorable.

With one of our hydraulic Gripen mounted under a helicopter, you get the following:

The pilot cuts and removes a tree in a fraction of the time required when using conventional methods. On average, the tree is removed from the power line in less than a minute
All work is done from the air, completely free from any need of resources on the ground
The risk of injury to persons or material is reduced to an absolute minimum since the trees simply are gently lifted straight up from the line
The cost allocated to the result outperforms all other methods
All our pilots who operate Gripen are trained and certified according to the EBR standards. After removal of the tree they inspect the condition of the power line to ensure the continued supply of electricity, or alternatively order the correct measures for the repair and maintenance

Clearing and preparation of the power lines for re-connecting using our grapples outperforms all other methods available today. The service is also offered under a stand-by agreement, allowing prioritized mobilization and utilization of the service.

Need we add that we have yet to use Gripen on any of our helicopter cleared sections of power line corridors?

Power line stringing

With our line stringing equipment, we are the only company able to thread the cable under the tower beam from the helicopter...

The filmstrip above speaks for itself. When we fly power line stringing with our equipment it's faster and smoother than with anyone else. The rig threads the rope under the beam of the tower, and then turns around its own axis to repeat this at the next tower. Within a few seconds each step is completed, providing unparalleled price/performance when you hire HeliAir Sweden for your power line construction.

Power line construction

IR / Infrared camera surveys

Corona

A normal inspection of the power line shows nothing out of the ordinary, but here you can see that the isolator is broken straight through...

What is Corona?

Corona is the technology used for inspecting power lines using ultraviolet light sensing camera filters. The equipment consists of a gyro-stabilized camera under the helicopter with a special filter that detects the ultraviolet radiation, which is the result of a power line "leaking" power. The reason could be, for example, a broken insulator, salt deposits or something else that is difficult to detect with the naked eye.

Can you see if a line is "leaking" power?

Without Corona you see no "leakage", and thus encounter problems with locating the reason for the mismatch in the network power balance. In the video above, you clearly see how the broken insulator leads off power to the ground thanks to the camera showing the ultraviolet radiation emitted.

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Services for the power industry