2. Why UAVs for the Energy Domain?
Civil UAVs are:
Autonomous, fully operational unmanned aerial vehicles
used for civilian uses
The most dynamically growing sector of the aerospace and
defense industry
An exceptional chance for a business venture with
outstanding profitability prospects
Key advantages:
Vastly reduced costs
Enhanced operational capabilities
Safety of personnel & public
Environmentally friendly vehicles
3. Initial Hypothesis
Where we focus?
On deploying smart UAVs for the Energy Sector and in
particular for:
Gas & Oil Industries
Power Grid Companies
Which activities?
Power lines inspections
Gas & Oil pipelines imaging and monitoring
4. Initial Project Vision
What about our project goals?
Offer B2B UAV services for the energy sector
Execute missions according to customer specifications
utilizing company-owned UAVs and personnel necessary
for mission deployment, data acquisition and processing
Provide company-owned UAVs according to customer
specifications with/without the support personnel
necessary for mission deployment, data acquisition and
processing
5. Customer Segments
Which market we target?
Large energy producers, power grid management companies, natural gas & oil networks
Which companies we asked?
Answer: All the key players of greek energy
market:
1. Hellenic Electricity Transmission System
Operator S.A.
2. DEPA (Greek Natural Gas Monopoly)
3. Hellenic Petroleum
4. Public Power Corporation of Greece
(biggest greek electric power company)
6. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we want to know?
General Questions to Industries’ Management Level
Would you invest to UAV solutions for your needs?
If yes, what are your costs for your current solutions?
Could you make a gross estimation of what you would be willing to pay for
each service?
What suggestions would make you more attracted to our services?
If you do not want to buy our services can you describe us the reasons?
Which risk factors you would recognize in such an investment?
Give any other comments you want for our services
Technical Questions to Industries’ R&D and Technical Departments
Could you analyze the areas in your industry where you think UAVs could
provide solutions?
7. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we learn? - Lesson categories
We can distinguish the lessons arisen from the face-to-face
interviews into three categories:
Potential interest for UAV solution to various fields from energy
industries;
The exact application fields & technical aspects where industries are
willing to apply UAV solutions
How our business prototype should be modified technically in order
to fit the needs of the energy sector
8. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we learn? – Energy Sector Interest
All industries mentioned that they have little to medium experience on
potential UAV application in the field
At the same time all the companies expressed high interest on UAV
solution, provided they will offer ALL the following advantages:
Minimization of human factor (lower labor costs)
Minimization of accident risks
Easy access to remote and dangerous areas
Fast response and diagnosis of critical conditions
Lower maintenance and monitoring cost on the midterm.
9. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we learn? – UAV Application areas
Application Fields suggested by Power Grid companies:
Daily & Emergency failure inspection
Power engineering dynamic monitoring & visual tracking of designated
features (power lines, poles, etc.)
Thermographic inspection of electrical connections in the grid
Identification of pylon and insulator corrosion, arcing and hot spots
Application Fields suggested by Oil & Gas companies:
Detection of gas emission escapes/oil leakages from the pipelines
Monitoring of construction & excavation works, laying of cables etc
Monitoring of repairing activities, assembling machinery, laying drainage
cables
Discoloring of vegetation above pipelines
Monitoring of temporary deposition of materials and agricultural products
around the pipelines
10. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we learn? – Prototype Modifications (1)
Based on the feedback from the interviews we realized that one the main
problems when using inspection vehicles is the duration of their power
supply.
The longer the craft can stay operational the more lines/pipelines can be
inspected. Current battery technology does not permit long durations of
flight for small electrically driven UAVs.
Which solution is making our prototype suitable for the Energy Sector?
A novel approach that derives added value through the combination of
the advantages of two established types of UAVs:
autonomous blimps
quadrocopters which can be refueled on air by the blimps
11. Face-to-Face Interviews
What did we learn? – Prototype Modifications (2)
Why we modified our prototype by considering an air-to-air refuelling
system?
Addresses the main shortcomings of autonomous blimps and
quadrocopters as well, thus resulting in a holistic approach and
efficient solution for most types of energy UAV applications.
Provides high autonomy and mission range with lower cost.
Is the air-to-air UAV-Blimp refuelling system technically possible :
Answer: Yes. It is possible. In fact, it is a state-of-the-art technical
approach which has been studied and applied with success
12. Product Prototype (1)
UAV Blimp
Technical Characteristics
Maximum Velocity 30m/s
Optimum Velocity 10-15m/s
Mission Range 9hr/400km
Payload 5-7kg.
Operational Altitude 300m
Zero Emissions/Noise; Low Observability
Autonomous Operation/Mission-Deployment UAV Blimp
Superior
Advantages technology
increased payload and range
Custom-made
quiet and obstructive (for the public)
operation solution
stationary surveillance capability Lower Price
low cost to manufacture and maintain
13. Product Prototype (2)
Quadrocopter Advantages
exceptional agility
small size thus micro-level surveillance
capability
very low cost to manufacture and maintain
14. Product Prototype (3)
The proposed scheme foresees the deployment of an autonomous blimp,
equipped with mission-specific sensors (ranging from conventional cameras to IR
and LiDARs) which also operates as a flying carrier and refueling station for small
quadrocopters.
In that manner, aerial surveillance in macro-
and micro-level can be attained
simultaneously, thus optimally satisfying the
requirements for most energy missions.
Effectively all aerial surveillance applications
(3d mapping, predictive maintenance for
energy grids, corridor mapping, public safety,
remorse sensing, etc, necessary for the
application fields) can be executed in a most
efficient manner.
15. Product Prototype (4) – Timeline for the Commercial Product
Day Zero
Day Zero
+18months
•Software •Iron-bird & UAV •Promotion
Development construction •Mission Execution
•Flight Testing •UAV shakedown •UAV Production
•Autonomous •Mission Testing •Further R&D
Operation & HIL •Missions with •Technical
•Business Plan prospective clients Consultancy
Fund raising UAV
goes live
16. Market Size Evaluation (1)
For an estimation of the market size we combined the official data of economic
results for the year 2011 of the companies we visited with the explanations by the
companies about specific costs for the fields where UAVs can provide solutions.
The companies we visited represent the 90% of the energy sector in Greece.
In total, labour, maintenance, inspection and fuel costs related to activities that
could potentially be totally or partially substituted by UAVs count for a gross
amount of 100 million Euros/per year concerning the Greek Market.
The cost savings provided by our Prototype depend on the specific application. For
comparison, we will present a concrete example that was analyzed in detail with
Public Power Corporation in Greece (http://www.dei.gr/Default.aspx?lang=2)
17. Market Size Evaluation (2)
Case Study: Network Surveillance
Default Practice UAV Mission
Use of manned helicopter with pilot Use of UAV Airship deployed on site
and measurements conducting crew Ground station mission support
Running costs, logistic costs, 1-man support team on ground station
insurance, crew payment Minimal running/logistic costs
Security issues rather common No security issues/ v. low insurance
Vertical vibrations often affect the Excellent data measurements
quality of measured data
Between 6-9hrs single session
Maximum of two 2hrs measuring deployment before refueling
sessions per day
Mission costs 5k € per day!
Overall charge ca. 30k € per day!
18. Market Size Evaluation (3)
Is our Prototype focusing only on the Greek Market and only on the Energy
Sector?:
The answer is NO. We particularly focus on the European Market because of legal and
economic similarities with the greek energy sector. But in general all the global energy
field could be a potential market.
We discovered that all the basic functionalities of our prototype can apply to a large
number of civil applications
Applications E F
A.Government 6% 1%
D
(law enforcement, border- & coastguard) 13%
B.Fire Fighting A
(forest fires, Search And Rescue) C 45%
10%
C.Energy Sector
(oil and gas industry, electricity networks)
D.Earth Observation and Remote Sensing B
(climate monitoring, mapping and surveying) 25%
E.Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries
(environmental monitoring, crop dusting)
19. Market Size Evaluation (4)
The previous diagram proves that the energy sector consitute only the 10% of the potential
application fields for civil UAVs. For this reason an estimation of the total global market for
civil UAVs can arise only from literature and future projections.
Teal Group Market Research*
For years 2009-2019. world procurement raising from 4.4 $ bn annually to 8.7 $ bn
For years 2009-2019. total expenditure >62 $ bn
* UAV Market Research, 2009
"A civil market for UAVs is
beginning to emerge over the
next decade, starting first
with governmental
organizations"
World UAV Forecast, Teal
Group, 2010
21. Environmental Monitoring – A New Opportunity (1)
Amongst the additional applications where our prototype can be used, we recognized as the
most relative the environmental monitoring. In particular, the combination of UAV Blimb &
Quantrocopters could be used for :
Managing Federal lands.
Monitoring environmental conditions and natural resources use.
Analyzing dynamic earth processes.
Supporting global and climate change investigations (carbon trade).
Supporting law enforcement actions.
Aiding search and rescue teams.
Inventorying wildlife.
Generating mapping, charting, and geodesy products.
Conducting environmental impact assessments.
Developing an archive of observations.
Preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters.
22. Environmental Monitoring – A New Opportunity (2)
To study this new possibility for our project we had a number of face-to-
face interviews with the following government institutions and non-
government organizations:
• Greek Ministry of Environment
• Greek Forest Administration
Service
• WWF Hellas
• Greek Ministry of Agriculture
• Callisto Environmental
Organization
23. Environmental Monitoring – A New Opportunity (3)
What did the environmental institutions answered?
All the institutions considered our proposal appealing and thy were highly motivated to discuss
technical details
For some of the potentials of environmental monitoring there are no current alternative solutions
They were unable to provide an estimation of current costs suggesting that this is a complex issue
They were considering difficult the financing of such innovative projects.
In advance, the Ministry of Environment mentioned that:
It cannot provide an estimation of the total market since it concerns a totally new field
The complete legal framework for civil UAVs is still under review
While at the same time it referred to the strong interest of European Union in funding such
projects in collaboration with the private sector and public institutions
In general, environmental monitoring using UAVs is a new field with high potential but
difficulties to estimate the exact market size.
Our interviews will continue towards this direction the coming weeks
24. Marketing Strategy
Based on our interviews with the energy industries we
realized that the best marketing approaches to make our
services attractive would be by using the following
promotion channels:
Aerospace Fairs
Direct Marketing on the basis of existing references
Specialized media
Academic Conferences – Journals to present our technical
aproach
25. Competition and Risk Analysis (1)
Main risks/advancements:
Very low probability of shift in political conditions regarding UAV
perception (e.g. legal frame that will allow air-traffic blend-in for fully
autonomous UAVs already elaborated)
Low probability of economical conditions affecting the emerging UAV
market (massive cost reduction!)
Very low probability of social disapproval for civil UAV technologies
(significant advances in public benefit, advances in personnel safety,
environmentally friendly technology, positive image)
Very low probability of technology advances rendering UAV uses
obsolete (instead, help to establish autonomous technologies in civil
applications)
26. Competition and Risk Analysis (2)
Prospective Competitors
Specialized UAV companies: technical deficiencies, lack of
development, inferior starting point
Big aerospace manufacturers: over-occupied with existing
markets, focus on military applications for UAVs
Currently, only a very limited number of small companies are
focusing on UAV solution for the energy sector.
Our strongest advantage is the high autonomy provided by
our air-to-air refuelling system
