TOWARDS A WIDE-SPREAD HVDC-BASED POWER SYSTEM ENABLED BY NEW HIGHLY EFFICIENT CABLE & FIBRE OPTIC MONITORING SYSTEMS

ongoing

Towards a dominant renewable energy generation scenario in the EU, it is key to modernise transmission systems for an efficient transport of the energy produced. The deployment of HVDC systems plays a crucial role in enabling electricity transmission over long distances with minimal losses. There is the need to bring new cable technologies that can increase the life cycle of future HVDC systems, and longer reach, more precise, easy to install sensor-based technologies to analyse cable status and locate potential faults. EasyDC-FOS project will commit to demonstrating a new generation of HV cable systems with optimised energy transport capability and longer life period, due to the use of an alternative XLPE insulation material, paired with the development of a series of smart tools for monitoring ageing and efficient fault detection in transmission networks, and reaching a TRL5 by the involvement of 3 demonstrators, 1 test bench and 2 real-world use cases, in different EU countries. This will be achieved by the: 1) optimisation of insulation materials for HVDC cables with operating temperature over 90ºC; 2) development of predictive models of physics and ageing behaviour of new cable system in response to thermal, acoustic and electric field stress stimulus; 3) prototyping of a set of fibre-based DTS, DAS, point vibration, and PD monitoring systems for long-distance cable corridors; and 4) integration into a cybersecure Edge Infrastructure that will allow real-time monitoring of cable conditions, as well as immediate response from TSOs, satisfying the KPIs in terms of system efficiency and stability, lifetime and thermal capacity assessment, and the accuracy of the sensors. For that purpose, EasyDC-FOS is bringing together a wide experienced consortium led by LMK, involving leading industrial technology developers of cables systems, a cable OEM, academic institutions, two TSOs, a key sector association, and sustainability and management experts at European level.