INCREASING THE RELIABILITY OF ELECTRIC POWER FACILITIES THROUGH THE USE OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

Abstract

The issue of increasing the reliability of the operation of facilities in the energy system of Ukraine is being considered. It is shown that the electric power complex of Ukraine has significant levels of depreciation, which, in turn, leads to an increase in the number of emergency conditions, an increase in the time of post-accident recovery, and as a result, a decrease in the reliability of power supply in general. Accordingly, the loss of electrical energy will be the more, the higher the wear of systems and equipment. Maintenance costs must also increase to keep the power system within regulatory requirements for high wear equipment. Outdated and worn-out equipment leads to an increase in energy losses, an increase in the cost of maintaining the state of working capacity and, as a result, financial losses. Reduction of electricity losses on worn-out equipment cannot be carried out instantly and radically due to the impossibility of the Ukrainian economy to upgrade power equipment in a short time. The authors propose to reduce financial losses by reducing the cost of maintaining existing equipment. And it is proposed to do this through the use of modern technologies, namely the use of UAVs for monitoring power equipment. It is proposed to pay attention to only one parameter, namely the uninterrupted operation of power facilities. Thus, for network companies monitoring the technical condition of lines and control of isolation means is the main type of monitoring. Density of failures of equipment operation is built in graphical form, where a normalized number of inspections is presented, based on reliability requirements. The number of inspections is calculated according to regulatory documents. The paper shows that the graph of the change in the probability of failure-free operation is not straight. Therefore, the frequency of inspections cannot use the frequency that is not related to the wear and tear of the equipment. And to maintain the level of reliability, it is necessary to increase the number of inspections to ensure the standard level of reliability. Therefore, the authors propose to reduce costs with an increased number of inspections using UAVs. The above economic calculations show the high economic efficiency of such a proposal.