Faced with the enormous progress of technology and its added value in everyday life, Côte d’Ivoire has decided not to be outdone. Drones, will now be used in the production of electricity, is what announced African leaders of electricity, this Thursday, July 06.

Indeed several drone will be deployed to monitor a little more than 5,000 km of high voltage lines.

The Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE) ”  already trains pilots of drones. By the end of the year then we can talk about effective use of drones “, told AFP Lataille Yao Kouakou, the project manager, citing”  an obvious solution “.

For him, ”  these drones will be necessary in the maintenance and operation of the 5,000 km of lines, which will double in five years with the interconnections with Sierra Leone” .

”  The operation (…) consists in mounting several sensors on the drones to be able to take pictures of the lines”. It is cheaper than by helicopter, and faster than inspecting from the ground. “The drones are well indicated for this type of operation, ” explained Raymond Rieux, of the RTE high voltage network, an autonomous subsidiary of EDF in France.

Target, doubling current production by 2020

Côte d’Ivoire, the first economic power in Francophone West Africa, officially commissioned last week the Soubré hydroelectric dam built by China to help reduce the country’s energy deficit.

The country has embarked on rebuilding its network since the end of the deadly post-election crisis of 2010-2011 that preceded a large wave of load shedding.

The authorities plan to invest 18 billion dollars (15.7 billion euros) in the sector by 2030, financed largely by the private sector. Abidjan aims to double its current production (2,000 MW) by 2020.

With a distribution monopoly, the CIE, privatized in 1990 and owned by the Franco-African group Eranove, supplies electricity to 1.3 million Ivorian subscribers, and exports to Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina And Mali.