Digital transformation, remote monitoring and the need to optimize operational costs to drive drone sector revenues to $515 million by 2030
An analysis by Frost & Sullivan, Drones in the Global Power and Utilities Industry, Forecast to 2030, reveals that the market for drones in the power and utilities industry will continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 23.6%, reaching $515 million by 2030. Ongoing digital transformation trends across the power and utilities sector and an increase in the adoption rates of drones to ensure the security of power supply under today’s challenging conditions are expected to sustain this growth.
“Drones minimize the need to send human employees onsite and can be deployed for monitoring, operations, and maintenance services,” said Swagath Manohar, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “As the global power and utilities industry continues to tackle the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, drones can be potential game-changers in combating the challenges it poses.”
Frost & Sullivan’s latest analysis examines the current and future market potential of drones across the power and utilities sector and identifies growth opportunities based on key market factors and trends. The current adoption rate of drones in the power and utilities industry is less than 10% globally, but it is steadily increasing as companies acknowledge the role of drones in providing reliable, safe and efficient inspections of power generation and transmission and distribution (T&D) assets. North America is the most advanced regional drones services market with large utilities in the United States already investing in in-house programs to inspect and maintain its thousands of miles of T&D assets. In Asia-Pacific and South Asia, the market is set to take off after 2020 regulatory frameworks are completed. Europe will see initial adoption of inspections of solar and wind assets, while LATAM experiences slow, steady growth over the forecast period.
In the short term, power and utilities companies should focus on building operational resilience by leveraging emerging technologies and forming strategic partnerships with tech companies and service providers to tackle the challenges posed by the pandemic. Drone service providers (DSPs) can also utilize this opportunity to explore new business models and services like performance contracts, pay-per-mile, and pay-per-time to improve their revenues.
“Power and utilities companies should explore the option of an in-house drone team in the long term,” noted Manohar. “The current pandemic presents the right opportunity for them to test their strengths and weaknesses in developing their in-house drones capabilities and identify the right technology partner who can provide the required services.”
DSPs (Drone Service Providers) can foster growth by:
- Delivering proprietary full-stack drone management software and cloud services to clients.
- Partnering with companies that offer robust Al solutions for deploying autonomous drones.
- Deploying augmented protective measures to prevent malicious cyber-attacks from hackers.
- Collaborating with sensor manufacturers for better hardware, software, and payload integration.
- Partnering with analytics companies to develop platforms specific to an industry’s needs.
