Around 10 am on Monday, Fang Zenghui stood under a 10 kilovolt power transmission line on a mountainside in scorching heat. His uniform was soaked in sweat.
With the temperature climbing to nearly 40 C in Yixian county, Huangshan, Anhui province, by noon, the power grid employee started the day's work before 6 am to complete his tasks before it became too hot.
Fang, 27, whose given name literally means "to shine more brightly", said he had been longing for rain for days. "There was finally a shower on Tuesday afternoon, but it did not last long," he added.
Operating a drone on Monday morning, Fang checked the screen to see if there was anything wrong with the power line. Unable to hide from the sun, he also made sure he could see the drone overhead and that it was working efficiently.
Fang soon found a bird's nest close to a power breaker on a transmission tower. He used the drone to take photos of the nest and uploaded them via a smartphone app to report the discovery.
A bird's nest in such a position is regarded as a dangerous obstacle and has to be removed. "We cannot afford any potential collapse of the power supply," Fang said.
With the impact of the ongoing heat wave in the region and beyond, the peak-hour electrical load of the power grid in Huangshan reached a record 498,900 kilowatts earlier this month and has continued to rise.
Fang and his colleagues climbed the tower, removed the nest and installed a bird repeller. Power transmission was uninterrupted during the entire process.
"It took about one hour from discovering the nest to getting all the work done, whereas in the past, it could take half a day," Fang said, adding that work in remote rural areas should be carried out by at least two people due to personal safety concerns.
Fang said that four years ago, summer was also extremely hot. "To ensure safety of the power supply, I accompanied more-experienced colleagues to the mountains for patrols over many days, despite the heat," he said.
The power company then started to deploy drones to ease some of the pressure on workers, and Fang quickly emerged as a skillful drone pilot.
As electricity facilities are commonly built in mountainous and rural areas, technicians working in such locations must always carry a medical kit containing pills to treat heatstroke and snakebite.
Working for State Grid's Yixian branch since 2018, Fang was recently appointed a line chief responsible for power services in some areas of the county.
Yixian boasts numerous tourism attractions, such as Xidi and Hongcun villages－jointly designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In addition to patrolling and repairing high-voltage transmission lines, the technicians take shifts for week-long household services duty.
Fang said, "There will be a light show on Friday night in Xidi, but we will not be able to spare a single minute to enjoy it, as we must stay highly alert for any potential electrical failures."