HOW SYNOPTIC DATA CAN BE USED TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON BLACK-OUT RISK? A STUDY ON TRENDS IN SNOW DEPOSITION ON POWER LINES

摘要

The paper concerns the study of long time trend of snowfall events causing accretion of ice sleeves on Italian overhead electric lines. This effort is needed to assess the impact of climate change on the continuity and safety of electrical service. In recent years, wide areas of Italy have experienced icing events dangerous for the electric lines, mainly for snow precipitations. The accretion of sleeves on wires involves several meteorological variables (temperature, precipitation, wind intensity and direction). However how these physical variables interact to give rise to critical icing events is an open research issue. Fifty-year long meteorological data series are available only from standard WMO measurements. The work presented in this paper investigates the long term trend of snowfall conditions, based on standard observations, which yield ice accretion on wires. The results show some evident local climatic trend further analysis and more accurate observations are needed to corroborate these findings.