E-Distribuţie Dobrogea is about to finalise the installation of 1.000 phase separators in 9 overhead high voltage power lines in the counties Călăraşi, Ialomiţa and Tulcea, in an investment project worth 1.7 million lei.

The phase separators are isolated elements which are mounted between the different phases of the same electrical line, in order to fix the distance between the conductors and diminish the conductor galloping (oscillation of overhead power lines due to strong wind) and therefore to lower the risk of unwanted interruptions during severe weather conditions, the company announced.

The company has begun to install phase separators in 2014-2016, when 500 were installed on 7 overhead high voltage power lines in Constanţa County, an investment worth over 650,000 lei. The program for this year started in July and will be completed in November, in order to enhance security of supply for consumers in areas which were in the past most affected by the strong winds, in Călăraşi, Ialomiţa and Tulcea Counties.

The project is part of the investment program carried out by distribution companies of Enel Group in Romania, aimed at securing improved service for the final consumers, assuring remote control and improving the quality and security of the network while also complying with Enel’s environmental standards.

As a result of grid modernisation, the three E-Distribuție companies in Muntenia, Banat and Dobrogea are the top performing electricity distribution operators in Romania in terms of quality of service in the past years. According to National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) data, in 2016, the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) for E-Distribuţie Muntenia was 172 minutes, the best in the country, while the national average was 290 minutes. E-Distributie Dobrogea and E-Distributie Banat also improved their performance and remained at the top of the best-performing operators in Romania, with SAIDI times of 217 minutes and 245 minutes, respectively.