Sector · Energy & Infrastructure
Drone surveys for energy and infrastructure
Corridor mapping, site design surveys and construction records for renewables, networks and utilities, captured quickly, safely and within your asset safety rules.
- LiDAR point density
- 100+ pts/m²typical at standard corridor capture height
- Street works for capture
- Usually nonetake-off from land outside the highway
- Coordinate systems
- OSGB36 / ODNor ETRS89 and project grids on request
Selected clients
01What we hear
The problems we’re asked to solve.
- 01
Corridors that cross dozens of landholdings
Cable routes, pipelines and overhead line corridors run for kilometres across farmland, woodland and roads. Walking them means negotiating access over every field, and the survey crew can spend more time at gates than on data.
- 02
Design data on a grid connection timetable
Solar, battery storage and wind projects carry connection offers with milestone dates. Layouts, earthworks and drainage designs cannot progress without topography, and the survey cannot become the item that delays submission.
- 03
Working near live assets
Substations, overhead lines and operational plant come with exclusion distances, safety documents and authorised persons. A survey supplier who does not understand your safety rules is a risk you do not need.
- 04
Permits and traffic management for ground crews
Surveying along or across roads with ground crews can bring street works coordination, traffic management and night working. Each adds cost and lead time before a single point is measured.
- 05
Evidence for consent and construction
Planning and DCO applications, biodiversity net gain baselines, landscape assessments and construction monitoring all need accurate, dated records of the site. Gaps in that record cause delays later.
02How we help
The right survey for each decision.
03Procurement & compliance
Easy to appoint. Easy to audit.
Permits, permissions and asset-owner safety
Aerial capture often removes the need to work in the highway at all. Because we take off from land where we have permission and do not occupy the carriageway, the survey itself does not usually require a street works permit under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, or the traffic management that comes with one. Where ground control has to be placed in or beside a road, we plan it to avoid the highway wherever possible and tell you in advance if it cannot be avoided.
Working within your safety rules
Transmission and distribution operators have their own safety rules, such as National Grid's Safety Rules and each network operator's distribution safety rules, typically covering authorised persons, safety documents and minimum approach distances. We work within your system: attending inductions, accepting escort or supervision where required, and planning flight lines to keep the separation you specify from live conductors and plant. Near the railway, flights are planned with Network Rail's asset protection arrangements in mind and cleared with the asset owner.
- Site-specific RAMS, flight plans and airspace assessments for every site or corridor section.
- Insurance: £10m public liability and £10m professional indemnity insurance, with certificates issued on request.
- Accreditations: Constructionline Gold, SSIP · Once For All Health & Safety.
- Landowner contact records and access notes kept for every take-off and landing point.
Scope: survey and mapping only
We provide survey and mapping data: terrain, corridors, volumes and imagery. We don’t offer thermal or close-contact asset inspection (roof condition surveys are covered by our roof service), and we will not stretch a survey into an inspection it was not designed for.
Procurement pack
Everything your approval process needs, in one issue.
- Constructionline Gold & SSIP health and safety certificates
- CAA Operational Authorisation & operator registration
- Insurance certificates (public liability, professional indemnity)
- Site-specific RAMS & flight risk assessment
- Pilot competency records
- Data protection & privacy statement
- Accuracy methodology & sample survey report
04Case studies
Example projects.
05FAQ
Common questions
Yes, within the asset owner's rules. We plan flight lines to maintain the separation you specify from live conductors and plant, attend your inductions and work under your safety documentation where it applies. For the survey itself, LiDAR allows us to capture conductor and vegetation geometry from a safe offset rather than flying close.
We need permission from the landowner for every take-off and landing point, and we coordinate with your land agents so the survey fits within existing access agreements. Because the aircraft covers the corridor from a small number of launch points, far fewer landowners are directly involved than with a walked survey.
Typically a topographic survey in DWG with contours and breaklines, a ground surface model in LandXML, slope and aspect analysis, and a georeferenced orthomosaic. For piling design we can supply a dense ground model so your engineers can check embedment depths across the array.
LiDAR records multiple returns from each pulse, so where there are gaps in the canopy some of those returns reach the ground. That allows us to build a bare-earth model under woodland and hedgerows. Very dense evergreen cover or thick undergrowth will reduce ground returns, and we highlight any areas of lower confidence.
Yes. LiDAR terrain models support turbine micro-siting, access track design and slope analysis, and give your geotechnical team an accurate surface for peat slide risk assessment. Peat depth itself still needs probing on the ground; we can supply our data in a form that combines easily with probe results.
No. For energy and infrastructure assets we are a survey and mapping company: we capture terrain, corridors, volumes and measurable imagery, and we don’t offer thermal or close-contact asset inspection. Roof condition surveys are covered by our roof service. Keeping that focus is why our survey data is specified, controlled and verified the way it is.
OSGB36 British National Grid with ODN heights by default, using the OSTN15 and OSGM15 transformations. We also deliver in ETRS89, local engineering grids and project-specific systems, and can match an existing project datum if one is already in use.
Insights
Guides worth reading first
Other sectors
Who else we work with.
Start a project
Tell us the outcome. We’ll specify the survey.
- 01We aim to reply within one hourA drone surveyor, not a salesperson, reviews your brief and calls if anything needs clarifying.
- 02Fixed quote & method statementScope, accuracy specification, deliverables, programme and RAMS — in writing.
- 03Fly, process, deliverCapture on your programme, then CAD-ready data with a verified accuracy report.