Fixing the core of national electrical grids

The cost of adding an extra lane to every road in the European transport network would be incalculably high, despite the potential economic benefits of greater traffic capacity. However, increasing the capacity of Europe’s power highways is much more realistic. Here, Heini Kloster, product owner for conductor cores at global composites manufacturer Exel Composites, explains how reconductoring electrical grids can help meet the increasing power demands of domestic devices, data centers, and electric vehicles (EVs).

It’s no secret that electricity grids across the globe, especially in the US and Europe, face great challenges to upscale their transmission capacity to meet the needs of developing technologies. In many places, electrical lines are 40 or more years old. The gap between EU electricity consumption in 2023 and the European Commission’s ‘Fit for 55’ forecast demand is estimated at around 900 terawatt hours, a quarter of last year’s budget.

Electrical infrastructure doesn’t come with a quick fix either. The average duration between granting permission for and commissioning of renewable power plants is around five years, whereas new electrical lines, with bases, towers, and conductors, take eight to ten years. Thus, grid owners need other options to be able to react faster to these changes and avoid untenable downtime and increase capacity by 25 per cent by 2030, as ‘Fit for 55’ requires.

Reconductoring existing electrical lines

One way to expand the transmission capacity of the existing network is to reconductor the lines.  Reconductoring with advanced composite core conductors allows Transmission System Operators (TSOs) to transmit more electricity and reduce energy losses without altering  structures, like powerline routes or towers. This approach will decrease the project costs by minimizing construction work.

Urban centers where extensive infrastructural work is most difficult, especially major cities, consume huge quantities of power through the day and night. Residential and commercial development around electrical lines prevents electrical contractors from building new lines, so maximizing existing conductors’ transmission capabilities is the only approach to help supply meet demand.

Additionally, reconductoring requires less comprehensive planning permission than construction of new electrical lines. Fewer regulations control its execution, limiting the red tape involved and helping the push for fast upgrades.

Reconductoring with advanced conductors with carbon fiber cores also helps TSOs to tackle operational costs by reducing transmission losses by between 20 and 50 percent. Increased transmission efficiency links to sustainability as less over-production is required to meet the demand.

Composite materials support reconductoring

Reconductoring means less work than building entire new transmission lines. It’s made possible with the help of advanced conductors. Using strong, lightweight carbon fiber composite as the conductor core allows use of a greater cross-section of annealed aluminum, which means increased flow for electrical current.

The increased flow of electricity raises the temperature of the conductor. In the case of traditional conductors, this makes the metals expand and causes lines to sag. The problems presented by sagging, especially in urban areas, are obvious and thus tightly regulated. Luckily, carbon fiber cores’ excellent tensile strength and very low coefficient of thermal expansion earns them the HTLS classification: high temperature, low sag.

Carbon fiber conductor cores are typically divided into single-wire and multi-wire categories. While single-wire cores are better known and still a slightly more economical option, TSOs are increasingly turning their interest towards the second-generation multi-wire cores for their safety and robustness.

Safety is an important factor, as especially the single-wire cores are more prone to break during installation, if not properly handled. However, the flexibility of the multi-wire solution is more similar to the traditional steel core conductors, significantly increasing safety during installation and use.

Exel Composites’ expertise in pultrusion, a continuous manufacturing technique, lends itself perfectly to manufacturing conductor cores. The global manufacturer produces kilometers of thin rod of different shapes and sizes and reels them around wooden spools for shipping.

Demand for electrical power will not decrease in Europe or elsewhere in the world. By replacing ageing steel core conductors with alternatives using carbon fiber, TSOs can boost power networks’ carrying capacity to serve the increasing demand, be it new data centers or modern homes, with less construction work.

To learn more about how composite conductor cores will help refit Europe’s electrical grids, watch this short explainer video with the author, Heini Kloster.