The activities performed in 2018 for the development and use of innovative techniques for the management, monitoring and diagnostics of transmission grids, are reported here below, grouped by three sub-activities:

On-site monitoring

• LANPRIS station (in cooperation with TERNA), for experimentation with and the aging of insulators: during 2018 Annual Implementation Plan, monitoring and subsequent examination of ongoing measurements were carried out on four types of insulators set up to accelerate aging phenomena, with preliminary assessments of the expected life of insulators by type and design creepage distance.

• AMICO DC device: the experimental device installed to monitor environmental contamination levels at LANPRIS station allowed comparisons with results from the isolators under test. The new, previously realised compact conductance meter McMel was tested in the field and was refined, adding new components and features for remote experimentation at LANPRIS station.

• Mapping the contamination level of air insulations over the national territory: insulator sampling campaign carried out by TERNA and populating of the database continued. The data obtained and their processing made it possible to correlate the ionic composition of deposit samples, identified by chromatography, with the size of the samples and weather conditions.

• Development of a forecasting system of pollutant deposition on power grid insulators: development of the performance validation methodology for the forecasting system was completed and results were disseminated on special platforms.

Diagnostics of network components

• Accelerated aging of the paper-oil insulation system of a transformer: further investigation of the results obtained from the measurements was carried out by performing additional off-line analysis to confirm/integrate the diagnostic methodologies.

• Development of in-line optical monitoring sensors for grid components: deepening of the results achieved by accelerated aging measurements and additional investigations on insulating fluids of transformers. In particular, RSE collaborated with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pavia in performing in-batch analysis with Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) of oil specimens used, in order to improve their reproducibility.

• Advances in vibrational analysis of transformers: in collaboration with the Department of Automation at Politecnico di Milano, vibration measurements made on transformers in the presence of winding pack loosening were analysed.

• Simulation code development of partial discharges: inceptionPD-4.0 simulation code was developed, with inclusion of movements of charges in the solid matrix and simulation of surface chemical aging.

• Design and implementation of an electro-optical field sensor: improvements were made in the sensors and electronics of the electro-optical sensor by making the complete Viktor-2 prototype, which underwent preliminary testing.

Component and asset management

• Eye safesystems for measuring the ground clearance of overhead line conductors:the previously realised system operating in the visible spectrum was field-tested at RSE.

• Guidelines for LCA analysis of electricity grid components in the Italian context: The results of the life cycle analysis of the Italian electricity mix, compared to different impact allocation approaches, were subjected to a sensitivity analysis.

• Modelling and metrological characterisation of inductive voltage transformers against harmonics: additional verifications aimed at validating and refining the model based on Volterra series and its implementation by means of Smart-SAMU were carried out. In this regard, laboratory solutions were identified at RSE in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano, to verify the replicability of the instrument transformer characterisation methodologies developed in the previous reporting period in industrially available architectures.

• Methodologies and tools for calibration verification or in-field calibration and High Voltage calibration of energy measurement chains: the medium-term stability of metrological characteristics and the influence of temperature effects of LiOnHV device for in-field verification of the accuracy of voltmeter transformers for energy measurements was verified.

• Realisation of aStand-Alone Merging Unit(SAMU) prototype: study of design solutions for realising a three-phase S-SAMU prototype based on the previously realised single-phase one.