Moldelectrica enterprise receives consignment of drones to verify state of high-tension power lines

Chisinau, 24 August /MOLDPRES/ - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Moldova has donated to the Moldelectrica enterprise ten drones for the overflight and verifying the state of work of the high-tension overhead power lines.    

The donation, worth about one million dollars, was made through the Moldova Energy Security Activity project of USAID, and has the goal to modernize the infrastructure of transport of electric energy, consolidate Moldelectrica’s capacity to collect information on the state of the power networks and efficiently and quickly respond to eventual incidents and defections, thus contributing to enhancing the country’s energy resilience.     

According to the Energy Ministry, the drones, endowed with modern systems of digital monitoring of power lines, will allow optimizing the process of monitoring of the power lines, through the collection of detailed air pictures on extended areas, cutting the cost for collecting data and improving the safety of Moldelectrica employees through limiting the human intervention.    

The donation was made at an official visit to Moldelectrica by the new director of the USAID Mission Moldova, Jeff Bryan. The official took knowledge of the specific character of the enterprise’s work, as well as of the joint projects underway.   

After the equipment’s reception, the Moldelectrica employees will be trained to use the drones both for the regular supervision of the power networks and for emergency scenarios dealing with the energy infrastructure.

USAID has been cooperating with Moldelectrica during more than ten years in diverse sectors, which are aimed at strengthening the cyber security of the institution, making feasibility studies in the renewable energy field and facilitating the interconnection of Moldova’s electric energy system to the one of Romania and implicitly, the one of the continental Europe, ENTSO-E.  

Photo: Energy Ministry