Smart technology to assess the expected end of life of overhead lines conductors

Context

Elia Group, in partnership with Sentrisense, has completed a project using smart vibration sensors to better understand the condition of overhead line conductors. This innovative approach helps measure the fatigue of overhead power lines that have been in service for decades, making it easier to plan maintenance and replacements.

Approach

Overall, Elia’s network encompasses 9,080 kilometers of overhead circuit. Overhead copper conductors account for approximately 1,351 kilometers of circuit length within Elia’s network. Some of these have been in service for nearly a century. For these copper conductors, there was, until recently, no truly effective method for assessing their condition.

The project focused on measuring aeolian vibrations — the movement caused by wind on conductors — over a full year. The data was analyzed and cross-checked through fatigue tests in the lab to verify how much wear the conductor had accumulated.

Additional tests were also carried out using hyperspectral cameras, UV cameras, and traditional methods such as visual inspections, physical opening of the clamps and thermography. These conventional approaches proved less effective or unreliable in anticipating potential wear.

Results

One of the test sites, line 70.802 Tienen–St-Truiden, was chosen because its conductor is nearly 100 years old. The results were encouraging: the line was in good shape, showing very little aging.

This finding, combined with the year-long vibration analysis, gives Elia Group confidence in planning future replacements and prioritizing resources where they are needed most. 

The collaboration with Sentrisense has introduced a practical and reliable method for monitoring conductor fatigue over its lifetime, opening new ways to evaluate decades-old infrastructure and helping prioritize maintenance where it matters most.

Next Steps

Looking ahead, Elia Group plans to expand the project by testing guard cables to determine if the same technology can be applied to other assets across the network.

The question of how to properly extrapolate results remains under study due to the probabilistic nature of wind, but this challenge is on the radar as the project evolves.

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