QLD:Google, aircraft to help Qld's electricity

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2011
QLD:Google, aircraft to help Qld's electricity

BRISBANE, April 21 AAP - Ergon Energy has hooked up with internet giant Google in a
project using two light aircraft equipped with laser scanners and digital cameras to better
maintain Queensland's regional electricity network.

Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said the energy company, which distributes electricity
for 97 per cent of the state, had signed up to Google's Earth Builder, which was officially
launched on Thursday.

The program will link up with Ergon's own Remote Observation Automated Modelling Economic
Simulation (ROAMES) project, which will use purpose-built aircraft to collect data on
the 150,000km of powerlines it operates, Mr Robertson said.

The data will then be loaded into the Google product that will process the information
into spatial layers and provide interactive, three-dimensional mapping for Ergon staff,
he said.

Mr Robertson said the aircraft were currently being built in Hervey Bay and would begin
flying in August.

Ergon Energy chief executive Ian McLeod said the information would improve customers'
power supply reliability and community safety.

"We aim to be able to use simulations to assist in every area of planning and response,
whether for a natural disaster or to forecast growth in particular areas," Mr McLeod said
in a statement.

The project would also save around $44 million in five years in the company's vegetation
management program, he said.

AAP jmm/stg/jnb

KEYWORD: ERGON (WITH PICS) (REISSUES)

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