Ameren Illinois Uses Drone Technology to Assist National Weather Service

When a spring storm with high winds rolled into Champaign County, Illinois, it damaged a device on a steel tower impacting the National Weather Service radio signal and leaving area residents with no up-to-date forecasts about local weather.

Residents immediately began calling Mark Stacey in the local office to let him know they were missing this vital service.

"We use the weather radio to put weather information out on a daily basis," Stacey said. "One of the most important this is, of course, severe weather alerts and when it's down it really does impact people."

Stacey visited the tower owned by local TV station WCIA to assess the damage. There was only one problem. The monitoring device is about 650 ft in the air and Stacey could not see the damage from the ground.

Stacey called the Ameren Illinois operating center in Champaign-Urbana and asked if he could have one of the company's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots fly a drone to take video and photos to capture the damage. Ameren Illinois, which has earned the distinction of being a Weather-Ready Nation “Ambassador of Excellence" from the NWS, agreed to fly two drones.

On a blustery, late March morning, Contractor Services Supervisor UAV-license pilot Paul Stegmaier, sent up the first drone. Within seconds of reaching the device, it detected the issue – several cables were disconnected in several places and hanging from the device.

The weather radio signal was approximately 650 ft in the air, attached to a steel tower and Mark Stacey, National Weather Service, could not assess the damage from the ground. Stacey called Ameren Illinois to ask for a drone pilot to help get a bird's eye view of the device. Within a few seconds of the flight, the drone, piloted by Ameren Illinois' Paul Stegmaier, captured photos of a damaged cable.

"We needed to get a really good look at the level of damage to the signal device, so we have some understanding of the damage," Stacey said. "We will take the information from the drone to figure out what parts we need and how much cable we will need to get the radio signal back in service and ahead of the spring and summer storm season."

Stegmaier and Ameren Illinois Supervising Engineer Joey Anthony, a licensed UAV pilot, were anxiously awaiting the quality of the video from the drone – DJI Matrice M30T – a newer model the company purchased.

"We were able to quickly identify the problem with the new zoom technology on the drone," Stegmaier said. "We were able to show Mark how the cables were connected to the device and identified the break where one of the cable splices had failed." With the footage and knowing the cause of the signal outage, Stacey has booked a crew to climb the tower to make repairs to the device.

"I want to give a big thanks to Ameren and Paul for flying the drone for us. This is really going to help us get the ball rolling to make the repairs much faster," Stacey said. "It was a huge help."

Ameren has several drones across its service territory. Ameren utilizes drone technology for aerial inspection of power lines and structures. Using drones instead of traditional ground methods to inspect and maintain its energy infrastructure benefits the company's communities and customers in several ways: