How to fit the strategy to respond to the challenges of the future overhead lines?

摘要

Projects for construction of new 400 kV high power overhead lines are facing numerous and virulent oppositions. To cope with these constraints, RTE imagined a new approach that involves stakeholders in the choice of the OHL design to be built on their territory. This process, implemented through a project of construction of a 2 circuits 400 kV overhead line in the north of France, has allowed stakeholders to choose the concept designed by HDA-Gritech. Technically, this concept is a challenge: - A single insulator string links the three phases of a same circuit on a high steel pole; - The insulator string is composed of composite insulators and specific fittings (for instance "rings" that support the conductors); - The design of the pole is similar to the one of a wind turbine; - The geometry of the structure implies the adaptation of maintenance operating procedures and the development of new tools. - The operations for live working maintenance must be modified. All these specificities have led RTE to adapt the industrial structure usually used for overhead lines construction: by working with wind turbine pole manufacturers instead of traditional tower manufacturers, working with firms used to making and controlling the mechanical design in accordance to Eurocode standards... The line will be done as a turnkey project on the basis of a European call for tender. The scope of this purchase is very large as it extends from the design of structures to the construction of the line. Taking into account the large scope of this tender and the technical challenges of the design, RTE is focusing on the robustness of the specification. Thus, further studies have been carried out to increase its reliability, particularly on the achievement of the construction and the fittings specifications. The paper presents the new approach for acceptance of the line, the new design, technical and industrial challenges to overcome to build this new 400 kV line in the north of France.