The “Electricity Transmission and Distribution” project aims to develop studies, tools, technological solutions, methodologies and data collection capable of promoting the development and management of the T&D network according to criteria of efficiency, safety and quality of supply, as well as promoting its development in line with the growing need for flexibility dictated by environmental and social constraints and the need to integrate renewable sources, in the face of a network structure designed in the second half of the last century in a technological, environmental and social context completely different from that of today.
From this point of view, the research activities carried out in the 2014 Implementation Plan in collaboration with the national TSO, Terna, are of particular importance for the increase in transport capacity: while the experience gained from the testing, both in the laboratory and on the lines, of innovative low-deflection, heat-resistant conductors for overhead lines, in particular with a composite core, was proposed again in the regulatory framework, the activities focused on the completion of a monitoring system capable of monitoring the deflection of the conductors in real time. Another important line of activity was aimed at reducing out-of-service situations, with the development and maintenance of instruments and systems capable of signaling the approach of potentially hazardous conditions for the maintenance of line and station insulation. With a view to the wider use of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, attention has been focused on the development of some diagnostic and monitoring tools and methodologies, with particular reference to both the refinement of laboratory test methods and the implementation of devices for real-time monitoring in the field.
Again, with the aim of avoiding out-of-service conditions while ensuring the operational safety of personnel, some activities focused on live work, with particular reference to robotic devices for line inspection, sensors for non-energy field measurements, invasive tests to assess insulation conditions and to evaluate the shielding effectiveness of overalls and masks used in live maintenance activities. The research and development activities carried out with the aim of optimal management of T&D assets by preventing degradation or failure events were also particularly significant.
In this context, in addition to the development of innovative methods and sensors for diagnostic purposes (transformer insulation conditions, partial discharges) or measurement (electro-optical voltage sensors), it has been possible, in direct collaboration with Italian utilities, to verify diagnostic and monitoring methods on MV cables taken out of service (in collaboration with ACEA and A2A) and to experiment with on-line monitoring systems for transformer vibrations (in collaboration with SORGENIA)
A further line of activity was dedicated to the development and testing of superconducting components, with particular reference to the modeling of superconducting generators for offshore wind applications, the construction of a 9 kV and 1 kA superconducting current limiter and the final stages of testing, including verification of the behavior in the presence of a real short-circuit, of the first high-temperature superconducting current limiter (SFCL) commissioned in Italy and installed on the A2A network.
With a view to improving the quality of supply, understood not only as continuity of service but also as improvement in the measurement of the parameters that characterise it, research and study activities continued for the development of metrological characterization methodologies for inductive measurement transformers, capacitive and low power, both at industrial frequency and in the presence of harmonics or phenomena that degrade power quality.
Last but not least, the scientific support provided by the project to regulatory activities; in this context, the coordination, entrusted to RSE, of the “working table” set up by the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (formerly the Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water), which led to the creation, at the expense of the distribution companies, of the national voltage quality monitoring system, extended to all the primary substations of the national medium-voltage distribution network, was of particular importance. This development has allowed the technical and experimental skills consolidated over several years to be strengthened with the management of the monitoring network managed by RSE, which continues to operate in parallel.