On the morning of December 13, 2023, at 9:00 am, under the transmission tower of the 220 kV Dongmo A and B lines located near Changjiang Road in Daowai District, Harbin City, the Intelligent Inspection Technology Work Team of State Grid Harbin Power Supply Company's Transmission Operation and Inspection Center conducted a test of the application of hydrogen powered drones in transmission line inspection operations. This is also the first application of hydrogen powered drones in power grid inspection in high-altitude areas.

Hydrogen powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are powered by hydrogen fuel cells as their core source of energy. They use the hydrogen gas they carry as fuel and naturally inhaled oxygen to generate electrical energy through a chemical reaction catalyzed by platinum catalysts, achieving zero carbon emissions. At the same time, they have the advantages of long endurance and low temperature tolerance. They can conveniently and efficiently collect information on transmission line channels, greatly reducing the pressure on operators to patrol and promptly detecting safety hazards such as external force damage, forest fires, and tall trees, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power grid.

Conducting drone inspections in cold weather conditions has always been a major challenge. This inspection operation used a six rotor hydrogen powered drone equipped with visible light and infrared lenses to conduct channel inspections on towers 1 to 22 of the 220 kV East Mozambique Line in a low temperature environment of minus 22 degrees Celsius. The drone successfully completed testing tasks such as endurance stability, emergency response timeliness, and long-distance relay. In this application, the reliability of hydrogen powered unmanned aerial vehicles for long-term inspections in low-temperature environments has been verified. This indicates that hydrogen powered drones can safely and efficiently complete various inspection tasks under low temperature conditions.

There are nearly a thousand kilometers of transmission lines built in the mountainous and hilly areas under the jurisdiction of Harbin. In the past, locations that could not be reached due to severe winter weather and mountainous road conditions can now be monitored in a timely manner using hydrogen powered drones with high endurance, allowing for quick inspections and feedback of on-site information for professional decision-making and processing. In the past, conducting a patrol cycle on the eastern grid structure of Harbin required four groups of patrol personnel to spend four days conducting patrol tasks at more than 500 points. After adopting hydrogen power, it is expected that the number of points will be reduced by half, and the patrol time can be shortened to about two days, "said Yu Yang, a member of the work team." In addition, Harbin will soon host the 2025 Asian Winter Games. As our research and application of hydrogen powered drones continue to deepen, this new technology will play a greater role in power grid inspections