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This power ball on transmission wires may help lower electricity bills
The sensor node detects available capacity on transmission lines. This could help grid companies avoid building new, expensive, and often controversial power lines.
Published
The grey sphere is about the size of a bowling ball. It is full of sensors and allows more electricity to run through power lines.
“What’s important is that we utilise the network we’ve already built in a safe way,” says Maren Istad, who works with energy systems at SINTEF.
Istad has collaborated with multiple grid companies to find out what the sensor-equipped grey ball can do when attached to transmission lines. The device, called the 'Neuron,' was developed by the Norwegian company Heimdall Power.
Grid rent is getting more expensive
When you pay your electricity bill, you pay one company to produce the electricity and another to rent space on the power grid. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) has determined that grid rental costs will increase in the coming years.
Limited space on the grid means that new power lines will need to be built if everyone is to get the electricity they need. New power lines are expensive to build, and they are controversial due their environmental impacts.
In many cases, existing transmission lines have unused capacity. Heimdall Power's Neurons monitor these lines in real-time, collecting data to determine their true capacity at any given moment.
The amount of electricity a power line can carry fluctuates with the weather. In cold and windy conditions, transmission capacity is higher than the standard limits allow. Both wind and cold temperatures help cool the lines, which makes the actual transmission capacity higher.
Locating free capacity
Today, most power lines operate based on estimates, with conservative safety margins in place due to uncertainty about actual capacity.
Therese Åsheim, a project manager at Heimdall Power, explains that the Neuron sensors provide precise data on real-time capacity. Field tests have already demonstrated their effectiveness, revealing significant potential for optimising the power grid.
Findings show that power lines often have a greater capacity than current operating limits account for.
“The increase is as much as 35 MW for some lines,” says Åsheim.
On average, lines equipped with Neurons have approximately 40 per cent more capacity.
Reducing grid expansion costs
Istad emphasises that the Neuron spheres provide grid companies with important information they have never had access to before.
“What still needs to be done is to get this information into the operation centres and use it in regular operations, so that the existing grid can be utilised in the best possible way,” she says.
Istad explains how better insight into grid capacity also creates opportunities for new jobs. Currently, industrial projects have to wait to secure enough power to establish themselves, expand, or make their processes more sustainable. That waiting time may now be reduced.
“By utilising the existing capacity in the current power grid, we can, in some cases, avoid building a new power grid. This spares nature from major environmental encroachment,” says Istad.
“The benefit lies in the fact that we can reduce the costs of operating the grid, postpone investments in the grid, and achieve faster electrification and connection of renewable power,” says Åsheim.
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