The T&D 2013 project aims to develop studies, tools, technological solutions and methodologies capable of promoting the management and development of the T&D grid, tackling research activities with a highly experimental approach. Study and testing activities, both in the field and in the laboratory, focused on increasing transport capacity, with testing both in the laboratory and on lines in service of innovative low-sag, heat-resistant conductors for overhead lines, in particular with a composite core.

Methods and techniques for monitoring the condition of some key components of the transmission and distribution grids (insulators, power and measurement transformers, cables, etc.) were also studied in depth in order to improve the intrinsic safety conditions of the system by focusing on the phenomenon of partial discharges, analyzing their propagation models in detail and developing innovative measurement instruments.

Other experimental activities concerned the identification of the criteria to be applied in order to guarantee the necessary safety conditions, moment by moment, for the systems, for their components and, last but not least, for all those who interact with the grid, in particular those who work on live components.

In support of regulatory activities or in any case of specific and urgent needs in terms of voltage, current and energy measurements, the project supported the activities of the AEEGSI (now ARERA), with particular reference to the follow-up of the second phase of the working group for extended monitoring of the quality of supply, as well as the creation of tools for identifying the origin (HV, MV) of certain types of events such as voltage dips.

On the subject of qualifying the measurement chains used to measure voltage, current and energy, and improving their quality and accuracy, the project worked both on the development of pre-normative tools to allow the calibration of new types of measuring instruments, and on the continuation of research and study activities to develop metrological characterization methods for inductive, capacitive and low-power measuring transformers, both at industrial frequency and in the presence of harmonics or phenomena that degrade power quality.