Synergy Awards for Innovation

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Hydro-Québec

Know-how to prevent icy power grid paralysis

Icing of power grid equipment can lead to catastrophic consequences as many will recall from the January 1998 ice storm that deprived millions of Ontario and Quebec residents of electricity for up to 30 days. In the wake of that event, hundreds of kilometres of power lines had to be rebuilt by Hydro-Québec at a cost of more than $1 billion.

Today, however, Hydro-Québec's power network is less vulnerable to icing, courtesy of a long-standing, successful partnership with a world-class research team, CIGELE, under the leadership of Professor Masoud Farzaneh, at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC). The partnership has developed innovative models related to ice accumulation and its removal, as well as new equipment designs that can better withstand icing.

The achievement has earned the partners the 2005 Leo Derikx Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada's largest science and engineering granting agency.

From its modest beginnings in 1974, the partnership has steadily grown to involve more than 85 researchers, students and technicians in what has become the world's largest laboratory for the study of atmospheric icing on the power grid.

The researchers have developed mathematical models for predicting and preventing arcing on ice-covered insulators, as well as tools for forecasting ice loads and the resulting behaviour of cables and conductors. Besides developing innovative ways to detect and monitor ice adhesion, the research team is now working at the nanoscale level to develop coating materials that are icephobic.