Archive for the ‘Company News’ Category

Arago installs a 400kV composite cross arm test facility

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
 
The Arago team, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Ltd. (SHETL) and Powerteam have successfully installed a 400kV test facility at a coastal location in the Scottish Highlands.  The facility, funded by SHETL and National Grid, will allow Arago to trial two complete Composite Cross Arms over an extended period.

Inventor Professor Simon Rowland, said “This facility is purpose built and heavily instrumented. In the coming months, the facility and local environment itself are being closely monitored with prototype cross-arms in place so that, when the final versions of the cross-arms are installed in March, their performance can be related to the natural variations in wind, rain and salt pollution from the sea.”

 

Composite Cross Arms Experience Winds of over 100mph

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Since November 2010 Arago Technology Ltd. has had 4 Composite Cross Arms installed in an exposed Scottish Highland location.  During this time the Composite Cross Arms have successfully withstood wind speeds of over 100mph as well as significant levels of snow.  The monitoring systems, installed on the Composite Cross Arms, are providing invaluable data which is enabling Arago to understand the effects of the severe weather conditions.

Senior Mechanical Engineer, David Chambers, said “Based on the results coming out of our monitoring systems we are extremely pleased with the way the Composite Cross Arms are performing in such extreme weather conditions.”

Arago installs first composite cross arm

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

Arago has successfully installed the first of four Composite Cross Arms at an exposed high altitude site in the Scottish Highlands.
The monitoring system, built into the composite cross arms, will provide a detailed insight into how the technology will perform in extreme weather conditions.
Subject to the weather Arago hope to install the remaining 3 Composite Cross Arms and associated monitoring system by the end of the year.
Commercial Manager, Dr. Frank Allison, said “The installation is a landmark event for Arago and vindicates many hours of hard work put in by all the team.”
Arago would like to thank the continued support of Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution and National Grid.

Multiple trials secured with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Building on recent success, the Arago team have recently secured Innovation Funding Incentive (IFI) funding to procure multiple trials for their Composite Cross Arm technology as well as develop an asset management tool for monitoring composite materials in high voltage environments.  The work will be carried out in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution.

The funding will be used assess and develop an understanding into how full scale Composite Cross Arms perform in multiple geographical locations where significant levels of snow and ice accretion, high wind loading and salt spray exist.

These trials will also draw on knowledge gained, from ongoing work with National Grid optimising the Composite Cross Arms installation and maintenance protocols.

Commenting on the trials inventor and director Prof. Ian Cotton said “This work is a significant step forward by taking the technology out of a laboratory environment into the real world environment, at scale.”

Arago wins at the Energy Innovation Awards

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Arago Technology has won two awards at the prestigious Energy Innovation Awards Ceremony.  Despite strong competition the team won the category for “Existing Performance Improvement” as well as being honored with a special commendation in the Energy Innovation Grand Prix “best of the best”.
Collecting the awards, Simon Rowland, a professor at the University of Manchester and founding director of Arago Technology Ltd, said:“We are a new company, these are our first awards and we are really delighted that the community can see what we are trying to achieve to enable greater power transmission through existing overhead line infrastructure.”

For more information about the energy innovation awards, visit the Energy Innovation Centre website here.