BDS System to Help Monitor Grid Facility Icing

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS system) is to play a role in improving signaling and positioning of icing power grid detectors in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

According to the meteorological department, there will be more rainy and snowy days this winter with possibilities of extremely cold weather.

Therefore, Guizhou Power Grid Corp of China Southern Power Grid started the anti-icing work in advance. The BDS system will be used in signaling and positioning of devices that monitor icing on the power grid for the first time and is expected to make a difference in its safe and stable operation.

According to Yang Yuan, an assistant technical expert of Guizhou Power Grid Corp's maintenance branch, most icing monitoring terminals are installed in mountainous areas and the data is transferred through the mobile internet, which easily fails because of weak signals.

The BDS system-based data transmission is more stable and the positioning will improve operations and maintenance efficiency.

Wen Yi, head of the power generation control center of the company, explained that the data from icing facilities will be transmitted to the control center through the BDS system and will later be analyzed and sent to a warning system for anti-icing guidance.

The company is now carrying out a BDS system-based icing grid monitoring experiment on the 220kV power grid between the Tongren and Wanshan transformer substations in Guizhou.

Both the BDS system and 4G technology are being used in the experiment, which improves transmission redundancy and shortens transmission time.

With a high-precision positioning service, the BDS system is also qualified for use in automatic driving of unmanned aerial vehicles, robot inspection in transformer substations and monitoring of pole inclination, which will promote application of smart power grid technologies.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)