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Aerial Lighthouse Lights the Way—DJI’s M350 Tethered Lighting Drone Powers the Power Grid

Release time:

2025-11-22 10:17

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In remote mountain villages shrouded in the darkness of late night, when transmission lines in mountainous areas are obstructed by terrain and inspection missions hit dead ends, and when nighttime emergency repairs face the challenge of insufficient lighting, DJI’s M350 tethered illumination drone is emerging as the State Grid’s “aerial lighthouse” and “intelligent eye,” leveraging technology to tackle operational and maintenance bottlenecks and injecting fresh momentum into power supply assurance.


At the power emergency repair site, the lighting advantages of the M350 tethered drone became immediately apparent. Following a typhoon, a 10-kV power line in a certain village went down, leaving over 500 households without electricity. Upon arrival, the Southern Power Grid repair team faced a challenging environment characterized by a lack of basic lighting and narrow roads. They quickly deployed the M350 tethered lighting drone. Once the drone, equipped with a 1200W light unit, took to the air, it instantly illuminated a 400-square-meter work area as brightly as daylight. Working in tandem with ground-based lighting vehicles, the drone helped establish a three-dimensional lighting network, completely eliminating any blind spots in the operation area. Compared to traditional ground-based lighting, the drone’s top-down light distribution effectively avoided light pollution and prevented personnel from experiencing disorientation or dizziness, enabling precise and efficient execution of delicate tasks such as insulator installation and pole erection. As a result, the repair task—previously expected to take significantly longer—was completed several times faster. The entire village smoothly regained power, demonstrating the remarkable emergency effectiveness of the “aerial lighthouse.”


In the field of intelligent inspection, the M350’s multi-load compatibility and beyond-line-of-sight capabilities have revolutionized power grid operation and maintenance practices. During inspections of 220-kV transmission lines, the M350, equipped with the Zenith L2 LiDAR, has successfully collected high-precision point cloud data amid mountainous and forested terrain, rapidly constructing detailed three-dimensional models that enable operations and maintenance personnel to precisely analyze line conditions and identify potential channel risks. In a recent peak-load and winter-inspection mission for a certain power grid, the M350, paired with an infrared temperature-measuring module, swiftly pinpointed areas of abnormal equipment temperatures, thereby establishing a robust defense for the safe operation of multiple transmission lines. The combination of “drone + LiDAR + infrared monitoring” has shifted inspection operations from “manual climbing” to “aerial surveillance from the cloud,” ensuring both personnel safety and early detection and timely handling of potential hazards.


Cooperative communication and optimized nighttime operations have further expanded the application boundaries of the M350. In a certain 10-kV line renovation project, the M350 tethered lighting drone made nighttime construction possible. Not only did it reduce the duration of power outages from two days to one day, but its high-altitude monitoring capability also enabled full-process visual supervision of the construction, thereby strengthening the safety safeguards. With an IP55 protection rating and an operating temperature range from -20°C to 50°C, the M350 can confidently handle harsh weather conditions such as rain and extreme cold, making it a reliable all-weather operational assistant.
From emergency lighting to intelligent inspections, and from single-point operations to networked collaboration, DJI’s M350 tethered lighting drone is driving the transformation of power grid operations—from “human-dominated” to “intelligently empowered.” With its core strengths in efficient illumination, precise detection, and stable communication, this drone not only addresses operational challenges in mountainous regions, at night, and during emergencies but also supports the digital transformation of the power grid through digital data collection. As the technology continues to evolve, this “multi-purpose aerial assistant” will shine even brighter in an ever-wider range of power grid applications, providing solid support for building a modern power grid that is safe, efficient, and intelligent—ensuring that every power supply mission is more confident and more effective.

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