Unmanned Aerial Inspection of Distribution Power Lines in MashhadElectric Energy Distribution Company (MEEDC);Challenges and Lessons Learned

As part of an academic and industrycollaboration, this study evaluates potential advantages ofunmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the electricity distributionindustry. UAV inspections have been compared withtraditional inspection methods in terms of inspection efficiencyand network interruptions. Also, this paper investigates howusing UAVs affects grid reliability indexes such as the numberand duration of interruptions. This approach is compared withthe existing traditional methods for inspecting distributionpower lines at Mashhad Electric Energy DistributionCompany (MEEDC) suburban areas. Using UAVs causedsignificant improvements in reliability parameters .