Power safety by seeing what humans cannot see 
2019-08-30
HOW can AI detect the hazard of power substations that humans cannot see, or help the city save more electricity? State Grid Shanghai Group brought the answers to WAIC where they showcased the company’s technologies developed with its the Internet of Things that are becoming the central nervous system of the city’s electricity supply.
One of these AI technologies is the infrared visual intelligence detecting system, developed jointly by the company and Fudan University. It was the first time the company showcased the technology to the public.
State grid said in the past, all inspections of power equipment such as substations and electric transmission lines were inspected by the workers with the naked eye, yet there were many minor errors or damages of the equipment which cannot be seen by humans, some of them could lead to dangerous consequences. Even if the workers were doing inspections with an infrared detector, the efficiency was quite low.
Now with infrared cameras installed around the equipment, the AI system of the Internet of Things can do in-depth learning which allowed it to memorize different patterns of infrared vision images.
“The infrared vision doesn’t miss out a single abnormal sign of the equipment,” said Zhu Shibei from state grid. “The serial number of all equipment scanned by the system will be recorded and the algorithm will compare the new images with the old to decide whether to trigger the alarm.”
Zhu said the system has reduced the elapsed time of inspections by 80 percent.
The other technology showcased at the WAIC was the Virtual Power Plant developed to save power for the city.
