Elewit registers new support system design for high voltage lines
Image courtesy Elewit.
Tech company Elewit, alongside Spanish TSO Red Eléctrica and Anisopter Insightful Research have registered a new support design for high voltage lines.
The new design seeks to reduce the environmental and social impact of new electricity transmission lines, ensuring stability of electricity supply, the integration of renewable energies and international interconnections.
Through the Anisopter R&D project, announced back in 2023, lattice structure startup Anisopter Insightful Research, Red Eléctrica and Elewit have studied the technical and economic feasibility of an alternative support design for transmission towers.
Breaking away from traditional transmission tower design based on braced and angled lattices, Anisopter proposes different triangulated topologies based on nodal structures that would make the fabrication and installation of the transmission towers more affordable and versatile.
According to Elewit in a release, the organic appearance of the tubular truss of the new design developed within the project appears less intrusive than that of traditional supports. For example, to improve the visual appearance, framing has been eliminated and the number of connections and reinforcing bars has been reduced by more than 50%.
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Furthermore, Anisopter supports are more compact, sometimes being up to almost 10m lower, 2m narrower at the base, and 13m thinner at the top compared to equivalent traditional truss designs.
In addition, a full-scale module of part of the support has been manufactured, using the Anisopter node system, with the aim of subjecting it to mechanical testing to validate its viability and effectiveness before moving it to the next phase of implementation in electrical infrastructures.
In this regard, the Anisopter project continues to advance and is in a key development phase.
Once completed, it is expected that the new supports based on the registered design will require less space for implementation, and in some cases may have lower manufacturing, installation, and maintenance costs, as well as a lower visual impact on the surrounding area.
The European Community design for the Anisopter support was registered in August 2024 and can be viewed here . This milestone represents a significant step forward toward making these innovative supports a reality.
