LineVision, Inc. recently announced its expansion into Europe and a partnership with the European Commission-funded FARCROSS consortium. The company will work with four FARCROSS utility participants in Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, and Austria to deploy advanced sensors and analytics for transmission line monitoring.
FARCROSS stands for Facilitating Regional CROSS-Border Electricity Transmission through Innovation. It is connecting major stakeholders and demonstrating solutions across the energy value chain that unlock resources for cross-border electricity flows and regional cooperation. FARCROSS and participating utilities are rolling out transmission line monitoring to safely and cost-effectively increase cross-border flows that will enable more renewable integration, increased grid security, and reduced energy costs. The initiative is funded by the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, a financial instrument under the European Commission with nearly 80 billion euros (US$87.4 billion) of funding aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.
The FARCROSS project will deploy LineVision's V3 non-contact transmission line monitors on key cross-border lines to demonstrate how capacity can be increased on existing lines at a fraction of the time and cost of building new lines. FARCROSS partners will analyze the initiative's work in transmission line monitoring and share best practices for standardization and improvements.
"Europe is blessed with a rich mix of generation resources, but the free flow of energy is often limited by cross-border bottlenecks and congestion," said Németh Bálint, head of high-voltage laboratory at The Budapest University of Technology and Economics and project lead at FARCROSS. "For the EU to meet its renewable energy goals, increase the security of energy supply, and ensure economic efficiency of the region's grid, advanced technologies are required to unlock incremental capacity on its cross-border electricity interconnections."
"European utilities, faced with rapid renewables growth and obstacles to building new transmission lines, are at the forefront of adopting grid modernization technologies like advanced sensors and dynamic line ratings to improve the capacity and flexibility of their existing grid," said Hudson Gilmer, CEO and co-founder of LineVision. "We are honored to partner with FARCROSS to showcase the value of transmission line monitoring and dynamic line ratings, and work with FARCROSS utilities and members to establish a new model for how to optimize the capacity and flexibility of existing transmission assets."
LineVision also announced the opening of LineVision Europe BV to better serve the growing base of European utility clients. This expansion to Europe represents a new continent of operation for LineVision, which is currently deployed across North America, Oceania, and Asia.
For more information on the FARCROSS project, visit here.
