Inspection of Penstocks at Hydropower Plant

Learn how an inspection of penstocks at a hydropower plant can be streamlined with a drone.

Key points from the case:

Efficient inspection: From days to hours

Cost-effective: No scaffolding, no rope access

Safety: No more humans in confined spaces

The enormous pipes winding through the Swedish forest carry water under high pressure down to the turbines. Internally, they are a classic confined space: difficult to access, wet, and normally only inspectable by fully draining the system, halting production, and sending people in with scaffolding and fall protection.

With our Elios 3 drone, we fly smoothly and effortlessly through the entire system, at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional inspection.

The drone maps the internal condition of the pipe, documenting every surface and weld in 4K – while simultaneously building a 3D LiDAR model, giving the client a precise picture of geometry and condition, without a single person having to enter the pipe.

The result: a thorough inspection with significantly less downtime, no draining, and no personal risk.

This is exactly the kind of task we were built to solve.