The Lithuanian energy group Lietuvos Energija has invested in Hepta Airborne, an Estonian startup developing a solution for automatic power line inspection.
“We are consistently investing in solutions that help us to improve the maintenance on our infrastructure,” said Dominykas Tuckus, a member of the Lietuvos Energija board and director of infrastructure and development. “Currently, the vast majority of electricity distribution network inspections are performed by humans. It is a time-consuming and costly process. Lietuvos Energija is seeking to create and implement a solution allowing full automation of the electricity distribution network inspection process by 2024.”
Hepta Airborne is focusing on overhead power lines use cases and has already developed a foothold in the Nordic market, where it offers tools for analysing infrastructure based on the imagery and 3D data. The company also focuses on the emergency response after extreme weather events.
“Drone applications are very much a vibrant and moving landscape in terms of how much activity has gone on,” added Henri Klemmer, the CEO of Hepta Airborne. “For us, we’ve been largely and continuously focused on the commercial aspects of the market that we can solve for really difficult energy sector challenges. But I think others have had some challenges because it’s not the most straightforward thing to figure out a viable business model for scale in the drone space.”
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