Solar and substation inspection

Documented US use

Dominion Energy / Skydio: documented solar and substation dock deployments.

Reported comparison

The reviewed source does not establish a comparable end-to-end saving for this workflow. Measure it in a scoped trial.

01 / Start with the work

Separate travel, site access, capture, analyst review and maintenance dispatch. Higher flight frequency matters only if the observations improve an asset decision.

02 / Proposed operating flow

The operating flow and acceptance plan below are engineering proposals, not a reconstruction of undisclosed customer procedures.

1. 01Select assets and baseline views
2. 02Approve route and operating conditions
3. 03Acquire repeatable imagery
4. 04Compare and triage anomalies
5. 05Create and close a maintenance work order

03 / What the buyer receives

Deliver asset IDs, time-stamped imagery, environmental context, reviewer decisions and work-order references. Do not convert a thermal colour difference directly into a confirmed fault.

04 / Acceptance and measurement

Proposed acceptance: repeated-view coverage, missing-data rate, false alarms, operator interventions and time from observation to reviewed work order. Compare equivalent load and weather conditions.

05 / Limits and failure modes

Dock power, connectivity, weather, charging and site access remain dependencies. Remote operations require defined human supervision and a safe abort process.

06 / Decision and responsibility

Candidate buyers: utility asset management and maintenance; IT/security and the authorised flight operator review deployment.

07 / Prepare a scoped request

Potential RFQ: sensor mounting, dock interface review or evidence-to-work-order integration. Provide asset list, inspection interval, network constraints and an example maintenance ticket.

Equipment examples

Technology

Documents

Start with the documented architecture

This is a be-passive research and project-intake resource. Named organizations are source examples, not claimed customers or partners. Flight operations, manufacturing and integration services require a separate capability and responsibility review.