Thermal powerline rating and clearance analysis using thermal imaging technology

A method for determining temperature of an overhead electrical conductor, comprising:

• by a processor, accessing 3-dimensional location data of an overhead conductor;
• accessing thermal measurement data of the conductor, wherein each element of the thermal measurement data corresponds an element of the 3-dimensional location data and has a collection time that is substantially simultaneous with a collection time of its corresponding location data element;
• and
• performing a thermal analysis of the thermal measurement to determine temperature of the conductor at a time that the 3-dimensional location data was collected.

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium on which is stored location data and thermal measurement data for a plurality of overhead electrical conductors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable memory containing programming instructions that enable the processor to:
• access 3-dimensional location data of a selected one of the overhead electrical conductors;
• access thermal measurement data for the selected conductor, wherein each element of the thermal measurement data corresponds an element of the 3-dimensional location data and has a collection time that is substantially simultaneous with a collection time of its corresponding location data element;
• and
• perform a thermal analysis of the thermal measurement to determine temperature of the conductor at a time that the 3-dimensional location data was collected.