A resilient power system must withstand or quickly respond to significant meteorological events such as snow/ice sheath formation, strong winds, and thunderstorms. Understanding how and to what extent these phenomena impact the grid requires continuous meteorological and mechanical monitoring of the lines. This enables the refinement of predictive models for effective alerting and detailed knowledge of the terrain crossed by the lines.

For the study of snow/ice sheath formation, three WILD 2.0 pilot stations have been installed, in collaboration with e-distribuzione, near medium voltage lines as part of the NEWMAN project. Load cells on spans, ice-free instrumentation, and cameras on pylons collect data for calibrating growth models. Several case studies are available to correct forecasts, and in the future, this correction will be implemented automatically in the WOLF forecasting chain.

Observations of sheaths on real spans show a non-uniform distribution along the conductor, with no load near the insulator. It is hypothesized that this is dependent on the conductor’s torsional rigidity, which should be used to model the load on the span. Initial tests considering torsional rigidity show reductions of 30-50% in the final load across the entire span. For example, on a standard 400 m ACSR31.5 span, a load predicted by WOLF of 10 kgf/m is distributed with an average value of 6.6 kgf/m.

The mapping of indirect risk from falling trees for the high voltage network in the province of Belluno, for individual spans, has been completed. In addition to terrain slope and the presence of tall trees in the span’s buffer, tree species were also extracted as a further discriminating factor. Operators have also reported a correlation between faults and tree species. In the future, this indirect risk mapping could be used in conjunction with the WOLF system for combined risk forecasting.

The threat of severe thunderstorms, responsible for direct and indirect damage to network infrastructure, is preliminarily assessed by defining a prototype of a monitoring and nowcasting system for thunderstorm cells capable of estimating their intensity and trajectory, based on radar and satellite imagery analysis.