IEEE NWF Section Meeting Announcement - Florida Power & Light (FPL) Drone programs
: Florida Power & Light (FPL) is using drones in innovative ways to increase reliability. Drones are used to monitor transmission lines to evaluate their condition and spot potential failures. This results in increased reliability to the customer. In addition, it allows service personnel to focus on repairs and replacement under more desirable conditions, rather than during a system failure.
News Release from WPTV-TV 5, West Palm Beach, FL – Feb 2020
MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Florida Power and Light is taking to the skies in an effort to provide more reliable service as it gears up for another storm season.
At FPL’s Next Generation Clean Energy Center in Martin County, they’re preparing for launch.
Drones, which launch several times a day, are part of the FPL/Next Era Energy AIR (Aerial Intelligent Response) program. It allows rapid assessment of hard to reach places.
"To increase our reliability and to keep our bills as low as possible," said Eric Schwartz of FPL.
The power company has been using drones for some time, but these drones in a box are online 24/7, ready to fly at a moment's notice.
"We’re able to quickly deploy this instead of charging batteries, getting all our gear, traveling to a site. This is already here," said Michael Dorr, a senior drone pilot for FPL.
The flights are preprogrammed over the plant's 11,000 acres. The drone doesn’t fly below 130 feet to avoid power poles and other obstructions.
The FAA has given the utility company a waiver to fly the drones two miles beyond their visual line of sight.
"For a utility to be able to see our infrastructure in areas where we can’t get to safely and we can quickly fly over it and understand what our conditions are," said Dorr. "Safety of crews is paramount, so this gives us a bird's eye view of what’s going on with our infrastructure."
While the goal is to eventually have a drone at every single substation, by the end of the year FPL plans to have two more on the Treasure Coast, one in St. Lucie County and another in Vero Beach.
The drones were tested at Florida International University’s wind tunnel at speeds up to 150 miles per hour, so they can help speed up restoration after a storm by identifying what poles are down and where crews and equipment are needed sooner to get your lights back on.
Date and Time
Location
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Registration
- Date: 17 Jan 2022
- Time: 11:30 PM UTC to 02:00 AM UTC
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- Pensacola, Florida
- United States
Speakers
Eric Schwartz
Florida Power & Light (FPL) Drone programs
Biography:
: Eric Schwartz is the manager of Technology and Innovation for FPLAir, Florida Power & Light Company and NextEra Energy’s Automated Intelligence Response group. He has worked at the company for eleven years. He is responsible for forecasting, piloting and implementing cutting-edge technology in the unmanned space to be used by the company. He has served in other roles at the company, including Quality Deployment Lead, Smart Grid & Innovation manager, reliability program manager and delivery assurance lead.
Prior to joining FPL, Mr. Schwartz was an engineer for Emergency One, a leading fire apparatus manufacturer, where he designed aircraft rescue fire-fighting trucks; and K-Rain, where he designed irrigation sprinklers. Mr. Schwartz holds fifteen work patents and nine personal patents.
Mr. Schwartz earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida, an MBA from Florida Atlantic University and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He is a member of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, and the Vice President of the Florida chapter. He sits on the NASA, FAA, DHS and ANSI working group committees dealing with drone innovation to federal regulators. He is also an advisory board member for Drone Responders, a non-profit group supporting the public safety UAS and drones for good. In his spare time, you will find him pursuing his entrepreneurial interests – designing children’s products for mothers on the go – and spending time with his wife, Elyse, and three children, Nolan, Camden and Hayden.