There are almost 100,000 kilometers of power lines, the length equivalent to going 2.5 times around planet Earth. And of these kilometers, more than half of the cabling passes through rural or wooded areas. These are the electrical infrastructures that Endesa has throughout Catalonia and which, in a situation of extreme drought like the current one, must be protected to the maximum to avoid any fire or environmental incident.
Yesterday, the company presented the annual forest protection campaign in Catalonia in the green ring of Terrassa. In total, the firm will invest almost 20 million euros to protect 52,628 aerial kilometers – 53% of Catalan lines – installed in the middle of a living and constantly changing nature.
In preventive tasks, it uses drones, helicopters with thermal cameras and laser scanning to create 3D visualizations that allow checking the state of the electricity network, from the air. These jobs, as explained by Francesc López, the company’s head of high voltage maintenance, are complemented by “inspections at the foot of the line, with felling and selective purging of the trees, bushes and undergrowth that grow around the towers and the wiring”, to minimize the risk of fire.
The tasks are carried out in coordination with the Osona ADF, which specializes in vertical work. The entity showed, as a novelty, that it has incorporated a helmet with multifunction preventive measures that facilitate and improve tasks and the reaction and response, in case of emergencies. In addition, it has a hearing protection system, which minimizes noise, equipped with bluetooth, and a radio system that allows simultaneous connection with up to 16 people and a distance of 600 meters. In addition, Endesa has a remote-controlled clearing machine that is controlled remotely and improves the safety and health conditions of workers (they do not suffer from vibrations or fatigue and do not inhale combustion gases)
Since 97.1% of the high voltage lines distributed in the territory are overhead, Endesa is committed to continuous R&D. In an intensive way and, every three years, the laser scanning of 100% of the overhead lines is combined with GPS technology and laser sensors, known as LIDAR (light detection and ranging). A computer file is created with a cloud of georeferenced points that, from an application, allows you to measure the distances between the cables and the vegetation. It can also carry out studies of the growth of the forest mass, among others.
