APG and Smart Wires Sign Cooperation Agreement for Innovation Projects to Optimize the Load Flow in the Transmission Grid

Smart Wires’ innovative technology will be used to evaluate how the grid availability and operation reliability in Austria can be improved with modular power flow control elements –another component for ensuring the security of electricity supply.

“We are the first enterprise that has tested the new rapidly deployable mobile solution with SmartValve technology in a pilot project and is now considering its permanent use. Joint studies have shown that with the product our transmission grids can be even better used to capacity. The technology has the potential to relieve the Austrian electricity grid and to make it more stable especially during the transformation of the energy system,” explains APG’s company spokesperson Christoph Schuh. Not least due to its geographic location Austria is playing a central role in the European electricity system. “If we want to achieve the goal of 100 percent electricity from renewables in the electricity mix until 2030, we have to avail ourselves of every opportunity that can help to use the grid capacities in an even more optimized way. In addition to the physical expansion of our line capacities according to plan we need new state-of-the-art technologies to facilitate the successful electrification of the economy, industry and society without jeopardizing the security of supply. Electricity is the energy of the future. By using the most modern technologies we hope to increase the share of renewables in the power system and to reduce the threat of congestions as much as possible. The first results of the pilot project are very promising. Together with Smart Wires and the TU Graz University of Technology we will now evaluate potential applications in the next few years“, says Schuh. 

Smart Wires’ General Manager Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Susanne Nies is also delighted about the cooperation and states: “Our technology is a very good match for APG and we consider the company as very innovative player in the European power industry. We are looking forward to undertaking the next joint steps in developing flexible solutions which will address European requirements and be important also from a pan-European perspective. Our most recent projects have been implemented in the United Kingdom, where we were able to increase capacity by 500 MW. We are proud to now break new ground also in Austria together with APG, the company that is responsible for ensuring the security of supply in this country.”

The TU Graz University of Technology will contribute its scientific expertise to the project and currently examines the advantages of the SmartValve Technology for the APG grid regarding the technical aspects of the power flow control devices.

SmartValve is a modular Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) that can relieve constrained lines by actively increasing or decreasing power flows on a circuit and perform dynamic services. This makes it possible to better control the transmission grid and to reduce the number of redispatch measures that are necessary because of grid congestions.