Since 2022, we have been participating in a test bench project for high-voltage conductors for European transmission infrastructure operators together with the Italian company “De Angeli Prodotti”, a manufacturer of high-voltage conductors.
National operators are responsible for the stability and reliability of the power infrastructure and are facing challenges in transmitting increasing amounts of electricity, such as that from wind farms in the North Sea.
An example is the Belgian company Elia, which decided to replace the existing system with a new generation of high-voltage smart conductors of the same weight but higher amperage, which would allow for significantly higher electricity transmission, without affecting the statics of the existing power poles. Numerous wind farms in the North Sea generate large amounts of energy, but due to limitations and bottlenecks in the existing power grid, this energy cannot be fully distributed to end users. As a result, wind farms are increasingly forced to reduce their production, which directly impacts the profitability and ecological efficiency of the system.
For this purpose, it was necessary to find a solution that would test the mechanical and thermal properties of the new generation of overhead high-voltage conductors and implement quality control of the installations. That’s why we proposed and designed a test bench with several built-in optical fibers, which allows a detailed insight into the axial forces on the conductor as well as its bending, vibration and temperature during conductor operation.
We developed the test bench system in Split, and fully implemented it at the De Angeli Prodotti factory in Padua. The system was then used for demonstration at the largest gathering of large power systems in Paris.
Given the requirements of the new generation of power transmission systems, further development and upgrading of the system for testing new generation smart conductors is expected.
