São Paulo metropolitan region, in Brazil, currently has approximately 20 million inhabitants. The region includes the city of Cotia that, including residential housing and large companies, is home to about 300,000 people.
Looking at ways to improve the service its offers to the region, a new power transmission line has been built by Eletropaulo (the main utility in the region) with Lo-Sag™, an innovative overhead conductor technology from Nexans. This thermally resistant design, based on a carbon fiber core, is both lighter and stronger than conventional conductors, as well as offering double the transmission capacity.
According to Sidney Ueda, Product Manager from Nexans Brazil, this is a pioneering installation. "This is the world’s first commercial installation of Lo-Sag™ and is an important landmark that follows the success of trial installations in Brasil and France." He says that the main challenge was in adopting the solution to the amount of energy transmitted. "There are 21 km of 138-kV conductors used to create 3.5 km of double circuit power transmission line" he adds.
For the customer, Eletropaulo, Nexans’ partnership during the project was a major contribution. "Nexans was there with us from the project conception, helping to identify the best conductor" said Amadeu Macedo, Eletropaulo specialist engineer. The new power line from Jandira to Cotia allows load relief on existing lines and increased benefits for the region. "Because it is new, it is less susceptible to failures and interruptions in energy supply" said Macedo.
In addition to the inhabitants of the region, the line will serve large companies that receive electricity at high voltage and also the training center of São Paulo Football Club, which hosted the Colombia team during the recent world cup.
