Case Study: National Grid inspects 600-ft exhaust stacks faster and safer with Pix4D

National Grid inspects 600-ft exhaust stacks in 32 minutes with Pix4D

National Grid, one of the world's largest investor-owned utilities, faced the high-risk and costly challenge of manually inspecting 600-foot exhaust stacks at its generation sites. The traditional process involved personnel climbing the structures, posing significant safety concerns and operational expenses. To improve this, they partnered with Pix4D and implemented a drone-based inspection workflow using PIX4Dmatic and PIX4Dcloud.

The solution from Pix4D enabled National Grid to capture high-resolution imagery with drones and process it into detailed 3D models and georeferenced Gaussian splatting reconstructions. This provided engineers with a clear, interactive view of the stacks to assess damage without physical inspections. The results were significant, drastically reducing inspection time and costs while improving safety. The shift to this data-driven process also enabled better collaboration and allowed the team to identify issues, like lightning damage, much sooner.

National Grid