Power Pylons of the Future (PoPyFu)

PoPyFu targets a unique market opportunity for designdriven redevelopment of overhead transmission lines (OHTLs), by developing innovative, composite-based pylons that enables new, value-added designs and technical solutions. The lattice towers, which dominate the landscape today, were developed over 70 years ago without regard to visual appearance – and, recently, growing opposition to new projects with the use of traditional towers has emerged. The current technological alternative, underground cables, is 6 to 12 times more costly and only technically feasible for short distances. Consequently, TSOs (Transmission System Operators) have difficulties meeting the growing demand for development of the network related to the expansion of alternative and renewable energy solutions. New material approaches will enable innovative visual expressions and at the same time - through the integration of insulators in the pylon design - reduce the size of the pylons significantly. As a result, new OHTL construction projects, previously subject to strong community opposition, can now be realized. This positive effect of new, appealing visual designs of the OHTLs has been confirmed by TSOs through a series of projects. Moreover, as the pylons are expected to be cost-comparable to traditional pylons, they will provide an alternative for only a fraction of the price for deployment scenarios where underground cables have so far been the only alternative.

PoPyFu’s aims at the next generation of design OHTLs with benefits to both end-users (TSOs) and the public, by developing:
- new design pylons that are smaller, more compact and are more visually acceptable, that

- further reduce OHTLs construction cost due to an even smaller and more compact pylon, and
- reduce corona noise and magnetic fields by the use of nonconductive materials.

The project's overall success criteria is to reach a pylon design in balance with itself and its surroundings, which is a future competitive alternative to the lattice towers.
The project's result is a production-mature prototype that demonstrates that the high voltage electrical engineering and material technology challenges are resolved and thus providing the basis for commercialization.