State Grid Zhoukou Power Supply Company: Technology-enabled winter-peak operations

Since early December, temperatures in Zhoukou, Henan province, have dropped sharply, leading to a spike in electricity demand. To ensure customers stay warm and to raise both the quality and efficiency of the power supply, State Grid Zhoukou Power Supply Company is leveraging advanced technology — deploying a drone-assisted manual three-dimensional inspection model that embeds intelligence into grid operations and maintenance (O&M) and builds a precision-engineered power shield.

"Inspecting 10 kilometers of line on foot used to take an entire day; with drones we achieve full coverage in two hours and can pinpoint defects such as tower-top damage or broken insulators." At a heating-supply line site, an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a high-definition visible-light camera and an infrared thermal imager lifts off smoothly under operator control, gliding along the distribution corridor between fields and densely spaced poles. Real-time video and thermal data are relayed reliably to the ground, where an AI analytics platform processes the information within minutes, flags latent defects and delivers pinpointed maintenance guidance. A closed-loop "inspect-diagnose-repair-verify" mechanism then kicks in: Once a hazard is classified by severity, a tailored remediation plan is generated, and the defect is eliminated without delay.

During winter, the reliability of critical components — down-leads on heating circuits, switch contacts and the like — directly affects heating quality. To counter the impact of winter hazards such as low temperatures, snow, rain, and icing, Fugou County Power Supply Company is running a special inspection campaign focused on winter-high-incidence defects. Drones, agile and wide-visioned, penetrate dense forests and river zones that crews cannot reach on foot, solving the traditional winter problems of low ground-patrol efficiency, high risk and incomplete coverage.

To sharpen power-supply precision, Shangshui County Power Supply Company fuses drone inspection data with its panoramic distribution-network monitoring platform. By analyzing load-growth trends on distribution transformers, the system pre-identifies lines at risk of overloading and drafts targeted O&M plans. A 24-hour emergency repair team is on standby to restore supply in the shortest possible time if a fault occurs.

Looking ahead, as the winter weather intensifies, Zhoukou Power Supply will keep pushing the technological frontier — integrating intelligent platforms with adaptive inspection algorithms to achieve fully autonomous, smart patrols, guaranteeing rock-solid operation throughout the winter heating season.