Endeavour Energy, an Australian power distributor, revealed this week that it aims to deploy 5G drones to assist areas of its electrical infrastructure. The company claimed it will deploy the drones in Penrith and Blacktown, New South Wales, after a successful flight test this week. The drones, according to Endeavour, will increase worker safety and hasten service restoration in the event of natural disasters or other unplanned outages.
Endeavour provides electricity to over 2.6 million Australians. It provides power to the Greater West of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, and the New South Wales South Coast. The organisation is in charge of maintaining about 60,000 kilometres (32,783 miles) of power lines and over 32,000 substations around the region.
Endeavour Energy workers use ground vehicles and helicopters to conduct on-site inspections at the moment. As the usage of 5G drones grows, the firm expects to be able to minimise the number of cars and helicopters it needs to do inspections and remediation.
The drones were created in collaboration with Optus, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Unleash Live, a video analytics company in Australia. According to Endeavour Energy, the Australian Federal Government’s 5G Innovation Initiative picked up the tab.
The 5G Innovation Initiative will fund 19 projects in Australia’s agricultural, construction, manufacturing, transportation, education, and training sectors, totaling almost A$20 million (US$14.8 million). A remote-controlled 5G firefighting tank, 5G UAVs for medical supply delivery to remote regions, livestock management, and improved traffic management for Sydney’s port ferries are among Endeavour Energy’s 5G drone initiatives.
Despite the fact that companies and carriers are studying the use of unmanned aerial systems, regulations are still playing catch up (UAS). The FCC announced in 2021 that it was reexamining licencing spectrum for drone operations. The FCC noted that the original AIA request was primarily focused on line-of-sight (LOS) drone operations, and that it now wants to consider how drone use cases — including those beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) — have evolved in recent years, as well as how they are likely to change in the future, as it considers how to proceed with spectrum set aside.
