Indigenous robots and vegetable extracts are set to revolutionise the country’s transmission sector as they will be pressed into operation by the Power Grid Corporation for inspection of its sub-stations to remove human error and secure round-the-clock surveillance and precise data gathering.

The PSU transmission major has exploited the world’s pioneering 400 KV reactor, with natural ester at its Maithon sub-station in Bengal-Jharkhand border, top operations officials claimed.

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Natural ester fluid is a type of insulation liquid derived from renewable vegetable oils. In 132 KV shunt-reactors at Aizawl, such fluids are used by the transmission major for the first time, officials said.

The Power Grid Corporation of India had planned for the robots in collaboration with the IIT, Kanpur and the IIT already has developed one robot at its SMSS laboratory for the purpose, which had a trial run in October at the PGCIL’s Kanpur 400 KV sub-station. “It’s an indigenously developed robot that’s expected to bring a sea change in the transmission scenario,” said Naveen Shrivastava, director (operations), PGCIL. Shrivastava joined the National Institute of Technology here to sign a MoU for Rs 5.95 cr solar power project, “Will reduce our energy consumption bills at least by 50 per cent,” said Professor Arvind Choubey, director, NIT.

Shrivastava was accompanied by the senior PGCIL officials. The transmission major operates with a 1.79 lakh circuit kilometers spread power transmission cable infrastructure connecting its 280 sub-stations.

About engaging the robots, Shrivastava told The Statesman: “It will ensure a safer and precise mode of operation in our utilities. The new technology will revolutionise the way the substation equipment is conducted.” The robot is designed to navigate through the complex environment with precision and agility and is equipped with an array of advanced sensors and high definition imaging with stereo IRIS control cameras, besides infrared thermal sensors, fire alarm facilities too, the PGCIL officials claimed. Its autonomy navigating platform is added with tele-operation features to act on remote commands. The PGCIL officials said: “The robot utilises advanced vision processing and specialised algorithms to identify and flag any damages, cracks and hotspots.”