Cost effective removal of conductor crossing clearance constraints

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
National Grid Electricity Transmission

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 November 2016

01 November 2017

12 months

£245,000

Power

London

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, National Grid Electricity Transmission

The objective of this project is to trial the ability to raise the overall height by 5m by installing semi tension insulators on two consecutive towers. The project will be deemed successful if the overall height of two consecutive in situ towers can be raised by 5m by installing semi tension insulators.

Overhead line (OHL) Conductors can place restrictions on major river crossings due to clearance distances between the overhanging line and the large vessels. This can restrict industry and shipping movements into these ports. To remove these restrictions through traditional methods you would either have to remove the conductors for a period of time or increase the tower heights at the crossing. Both options can be costly and can lead to system constraints. An innovative and quick solution which has been proposed to enable height restrictions to be increased without causing significant systems constraints is to change the position and angle of the insulator (a piece of equipment that prevents conduction of electricity between the line and the tower) to enable the height of the conductor to be increased, without the need to modify the tower itself. This project aims to test the ability to change the position and angle of the insulator without the need to alter the height of the existing tower, remove conductors temporally or to underground the cable, two semi tension insulator sets could be fitted to the bottom phase conductor on the towers either side of the crossing. This will be the first time semi tension insulators have been fitted on two consecutive towers of this height within the GB transmission system.Note : Project Documents may be available via the ENA Smarter Networks Portal using the Website link above

09/08/18