Taizhou launches China's first citywide low-altitude drone network
Taizhou builds 207 airports for drones. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]
In Taizhou, 207 drones took off from 207 newly built drone airports, forming the country's first citywide low-altitude service network to safeguard the urban power grid around the clock.
In 2014, the city's transmission system included 480 lines covering 4,130.78 kilometers. Daily inspections relied on binoculars and infrared thermometers, which were time-consuming and often failed to detect hidden safety hazards.
A drone inspects Taizhou's power grid. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]
A drone inspection revolution began in 2015, replacing manual patrols with unmanned aerial vehicles. The 207 drone airports were precisely located to serve urban areas within a 3-kilometer radius and rural areas within 5 kilometers.
Drones offer clear advantages over traditional inspections: substations previously inspected only quarterly are now monitored every three days, while inspection efficiency has tripled. By building a database of over one million standardized defect samples, drone defect recognition accuracy has exceeded 85 percent, and hazard detection across transmission, transformation and distribution has increased by 150 percent, leaving no blind spots in the power grid.
Beyond electricity monitoring, the drone network supports broader urban management. The city's traffic department uses drones to monitor peak-hour flows on major roads, optimizing traffic signal timing and improving congestion efficiency by 15 percent. The environment bureau leverages drones for regular river and lake inspections, accurately locating pollution sources, while the urban construction department is working to create a 60-square-kilometer 3D holographic city map.
A drone inspects a transmission tower in Taizhou. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]
Drones also support precision agriculture and environmental protection. In Huisheng village, Dongxing town, drones equipped with multispectral cameras track the entire growth cycle of rice, providing customized water and fertilizer plans and improving irrigation efficiency by 30 percent. Along the Taizhou section of the Yangtze River, drones monitor the movements of finless porpoises and hairtail fish, alerting authorities to illegal fishing activity.
