Maintenance personnel walk along a path during a patrol mission in Pingxiang, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 10, 2023. Wen Xianwen, Yao Zhengqiang, Deng Yiqiang and Li Yingxing are members of a team of maintenance personnel from the Guangxi branch of China Southern Power Grid's Pingxiang power supply station. Workers of the team, which was founded in 1974, have patrolled nearly 250,000-kilometer-long power transmission lines over the past 49 years. Led by Wen at present, the team has entered its fourth generation.

"Our daily works include barrier clearance around transmission line towers, routine check and drone inspection on towers, as well as temperature measurement on power transmission towers with infrared thermometer," said Wen, "the recent extreme weather makes maintenance works more frequent."

To prevent the bite from poisonous snakes and insects, the team members conduct the maintenance works with machetes or sticks, not to mention that the harsh natural environment makes maintaining power transmission lines a tough task.

With the development of local economy, local residents' demand for electricity has seen a steady increase in the past several years.

The team has worked hard on decreasing failure rates and improving power supply reliability, with the duration of power failure and customer complaints significantly decreased in the patrol area of the team. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)