Fully automatic drone introduction to reduce the cost of renewable energy, labor saving and cost reduction of inspection | Press release of afterFIT Co., Ltd.

AfterFIT started operation in response to frequent copper wire theft

AfterFIT Co., Ltd. AfterFIT (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative of Tanimoto Nukizo), a green electric power company, will start operation of inspection and monitoring of solar power plants by fully automatic drones from February 17th. Started at a managed power plant. The power plant is completely unmanned and operates the drone remotely to monitor and inspect it. With the end of the feed-in tariff (FIT) for photovoltaic power generation in March 2010, further cost reductions are urgently needed. We also use drones to prevent theft. We will also provide solutions to power plants other than those managed in-house and propose introductions. 1: Products and contents to be put into practical use Fully automatic drone will be put into practical use at the power plant (1,924KW) in Ashino, Nasu Town, Tochigi Prefecture. There is no operator or assistant at the site, and all operations for drone inspection are performed remotely from the Tokyo head office, and it is a level 3 operation (out of sight, no assistant). Drone Nest (charging port) and drone are installed at the power plant. When you press the start flight button on the computer screen of the Tokyo head office, the drone will fly along a predetermined inspection route, take a picture of the solar panel with an infrared camera, and automatically return to Drone Nest. One inspection time is about 20 minutes, and it can be charged in 60 minutes. It also works with a security monitoring system. It is also possible to fly the drone to the place where the surveillance system detects an abnormality and warn the intruder. After completing the demonstration experiment at the power plant managed by the company, we will enter the operation phase and propose the introduction to the power plant other than the power plant managed by the company. 2: Background to practical use There are two main reasons behind the introduction of fully automatic drones. One is maintenance cost reduction and labor saving, and the other is anti-theft measures. afterFIT has already incorporated drones as standard into power plant inspection operations. Even if it takes 3 hours per MW for inspection work that was done manually, it is compressed to 10 minutes with a drone. We have opened 25 bases in Japan to inspect power plants scattered all over the country, and have trained and assigned more than 50 drone operators. All power plants are ready to have maintenance technicians within two hours. However, due to the aging of the population in Japan, there is a shortage of chief electrical engineers, and maintenance and management of power plants requires further labor saving. Inspection using a fully automatic drone does not change the flight time per MW, but the round-trip travel time and cost required for rushing are also zero, leading to significant labor savings. It is also possible to use drones for the purpose of crime prevention and monitoring against "copper wire theft" in power plants, which has frequently occurred in various parts of Japan in recent years. Theft of copper wire, etc. not only increases the direct cost for its replacement, but also has the disadvantage that the amount of power generated drops in the time it takes to complete the repair or replacement. Cases of theft occurring several times a year at the same power plant have been reported, and countermeasures are urgently needed. The introduction of a fully automatic drone not only has the cost reduction effect of labor saving, but also has the advantage of increasing the flight frequency. Periodic inspections of solar power plants are carried out about four times a year, but in order to check if there is any damage due to typhoons, heavy rains, etc., and to search for problems and causes when abnormalities are found in the amount of power generation. Inspection can be performed more easily than before. By comprehensively providing these benefits to our customers, we will be able to provide higher quality maintenance work at low cost. 3: Uniqueness and strength of this initiative For practical use, we emphasized the cooperation between the fully automatic flight inspection program utilizing general-purpose aircraft and our own system. There have been cases in Japan of developing a dedicated drone for the purpose of maintenance and inspection of power plants, but the cost including the charging port is about 10 million yen, which is a cost-effectiveness barrier to practical use. For this reason, afterFIT has reduced the cost of equipment and programs to less than half by utilizing general-purpose products made by DJI, the world's largest drone maker. In addition, we have our own system for creating image management and power plant abnormality reports, and we can also link acquired images via the cloud. In December 2009, we conducted a demonstration experiment in Sapporo city for the first time in Japan regarding the inspection work of a solar power plant using a general-purpose machine of a fully automatic drone. This time, we made further progress and started operation at level 3 where there are no local assistants. 4: Aiming for afterFIT drone business The country has set a goal of expanding the introduction of renewable energy, and further cost reduction of electric power is socially expected. The feed-in tariff (FIT) for photovoltaic power generation will end in March 2010, and the photovoltaic power generation business will be required to further reduce costs. The number of power plants that have been built for a long time is increasing, and the importance of maintenance work is increasing for quality maintenance. Under such circumstances, afterFIT will utilize technology to enhance and save labor in the maintenance work of solar power plants, reduce costs, and work on projects to popularize high-quality power plants. afterFIT is focusing on drone utilization with the aim of "solving green power issues with technology." We have trained pilots in-house, and 50 qualified personnel are already enrolled, and we are conducting surveys necessary for inspection, construction and design of solar power plants. In addition, we are promoting AI analysis of captured images and in-house development of an automatic navigation application program to improve work efficiency and save labor. ■ afterFIT Co., Ltd. A green electric power company that specializes in green and develops three electric power businesses: power generation, transmission, and sales. We are growing in the power generation business area by taking advantage of our ability to handle everything from development to maintenance in-house. Taking advantage of this track record, we are focusing on solving green power issues, such as searching for suitable power generation sites using AI and developing systems that control large-scale storage batteries with algorithms. Sales (fiscal year ending April 2021) 19 billion yen. In addition to 25 domestic bases, we have expanded into Vietnam and Indonesia. Founded October 2016 Representative Director Tanimoto Nukizo Business Description Green Electric Power Company (Power Generation Business, Electricity Retail Business) URL https://afterfit.co.jp/ * The following is special information limited to media personnel. Please refrain from disclosing information on personal SNS etc.

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