Hi folks.  My experiences with drones/quad copters are kind of limited.  I'm trying to justify one of the Vision+ models for my work at a local utility company.  One use I have is to save man hours and employee risk by using one of these for inspecting power lines and poles.  I know with experience that a pilot would be able to pilot one of these without problem.  
What would be some other uses that anyone can think of?  

Personally I would not fly one of these too close to power lines. As the transmissions of the power lines have known to cause problems.
As far as your other comment, The uses are many, Like the one you state, Real Estate, Oil Companies use them. Farmers, the list just goes on and on.

Thanks.  Didn't think about the radio interference.  I know another use we have would be to visually inspect various towers.  The climb time alone would be worth the savings.  

There are pilots that fly near power lines routinely without issues.
Then there are pilots that find lines on their mission course, and get into trouble.
I, personally, steer clear of them.
I include them as a common denominator to fly-aways...

The conclusions from some recent discussion over on RCG include the precaution to not get under or too close to the sides of power lines.
Issues from flying above seem few.
There is, I've read, a power company or two in CA using UAVs for line and tower inspections.
Maybe a zoom lens could be brought into play...

Our company just purchased one to test.  We plan to used for Dams, penstock, surge tank, roof inspections, planner for new developments, etc... many uses besides electrical.  I think the key with electrical is a quality camera and keep your distance.

Would it be worth investing ~$1500 to find out? If you are going to save 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars, I'm thinking this is a small investment to make for R&D. I wouldn't want to try to work in residential areas either.  My 2 cents!    Barney