Experience in monitoring of icing and prevention against icing on overhead power lines

The development of technology has spurred after the catastrophic icing event when large numbers of low, medium and high voltage overhead power lines (OHL) collapsed particularly in Slovenia in the beginning of 2014. Development and financial incentives for the construction of the DEMO were obtained from European development funds, the Horizon 2020 project called "FLEXITRANSTORE". The DEMO was constructed on OHL 110 kV Kleče -Logatec single circuit overhead line equipped with ACSR 240/40 mm² conductors. On the OHL two devices OTLM (On-line transmission line monitoring) SMART and one weather station were installed on two towers. The OTLM SMART software was updated with inclination measurement and with new software features for determining additional mechanical load of conductors due to ice or wet snow. Additional mechanical load is determined based on the difference between measured angle and mathematically determined angle by model. The combination and synchronization between algorithms, weather service and measuring equipment is the key of successful operation. EU H2020 financed project “FLEXITRANSTORE” was launched by the end of 2017 to develop a cross-country co-operation, with objective to improve anti-icing and de-icing solutions. A test equipment was installed to demonstrate the capabilities of this new technologies on the DSO grid of Electro Ljubljana (ELJ). This paper will present the positive experience and results from BME and C&G, partners of DEMO, after the first winter 2018/2019 after polygon was established.