Safety Distance Determination for 500 kV AC Transmission Line’s Helicopter Inspection

As an efficient and advanced line inspection method, helicopter line patrol is gradually more and more used in transmission lines inspection, promoting the elaborate operation of transmission lines and reducing the management cost. However, as a 'floating-potential conductor' near to a high-voltage transmission line, the helicopter would be at a high electric field region; and bring security risk to equipment and operating personnel. In this paper, the electric field strength near the cabin at locations of different distance from transmission lines is investigated by calculation, and the field in the helicopter cabin is also calculated with finite element method (FEM). The result indicates that the potential difference becomes higher with the decrease of the distance between the helicopter and transmission line. Considering the discharge energy and the guarantee of the persons’ safety, the safety distance is determined as d≥15 m.