Zhoushan, Zhejiang: Shipborne UAVs revolutionize submarine cable operations and maintenance

On January 15, State Grid Zhoushan Power Supply Company deployed a shipborne unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the Tengxing O&M No 10 vessel to conduct real-time inspections and risk assessments in the submarine cable protection zone off the southwest coast of Qushan Island, Zhoushan. This marks the first application of such technology in submarine cable operations and maintenance across Zhejiang province, establishing a new technical safeguard for the safe and stable operation of submarine cable lines.

The submarine cables in the sea around Zhoushan serve as the "power supply lifeline" for the archipelago's islands. Traditional cable maintenance relies heavily on manual, on-board patrols, which suffer from critical shortcomings: low efficiency, as channel inspections are time-consuming and highly vulnerable to weather and sea conditions — severe weather events such as high winds and waves prevent vessels from sailing, causing missed patrol windows, interrupted inspections, and monitoring blind spots; elevated safety risks, as crew safety cannot be effectively guaranteed under complex sea conditions; and delayed emergency response, as handling abnormal situations requires on-site information relay from patrol vessels, resulting in the slow transmission of information and delayed responses that are incapable of meeting the current requirements for submarine cable external damage prevention.

[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

To address these challenges, State Grid Zhoushan has developed a customized shipborne UAV system as a key asset for enhanced cable protection. The solution implements a dedicated UAV WeChat group workflow featuring daily plan reporting, patrol system coordination, and post-patrol summary reporting. Leveraging an integrated patrol system featuring UAVs as the primary asset, and supported by operation and maintenance vessels, the technology breaks the traditional "one vessel per channel" limitation, enabling "multiple channels per sortie" efficiency. This significantly enhances both patrol efficiency and timeliness. For instance, in submarine cable inspections, a single UAV-vessel team can accomplish patrol tasks across 11 circuits in six channels that previously required seven patrol vessels, reducing patrol duration from 20 hours to just 2.5 hours.

"With this technology, crew members no longer need to brave dangerous sea conditions to monitor and manage cables," said a transmission operation and inspection engineer from the company. This successful deployment ensures stable operations even in harsh environments, substantially reduces the risk of cable equipment failures, and safeguards both personnel safety and equipment stability, ensuring sufficient electricity supply for both residential consumption and industrial production.