When we think about the problems that the crazy climate could create for us, we often don't realize that we will be able to see the first effects on everyday life. Increasingly violent climatic events, temperatures close to peaks both in winter and in summer, increasingly extreme meteorological phenomena can have heavy impact on global electricity grids. There are many striking examples: from the 2016 blackouts in South Australia following tornadoes that blew at 200 km per hour, to the flooding of power plants after hurricane Sandy in 2012 in New York or, much closer to us, to the blackout that in 2017 left thousands of families in Abruzzo without electricity for several days. Last case, the typhoon that devastated Japan last weekend.
There are companies that study the way make the electricity networks more "robust" and resistant, overcoming consolidated paradigms in the design and management of systems through the use of innovative technologies capable of guaranteeing their functioning and preventing the risks deriving from adverse weather events. These include hydrophobic devices and anti-ice devices, which prevent the cables from freezing, up to anti-torsion devices, which mitigate the twisting of the cables themselves due to strong winds.
Among these companies stands out Cesi, an Italian company owned by Enel and Terna active in the segment of test services and technical consultancy for the electricity sector which in its Milanese laboratories also host one of the only four sites in the world for the production of the special photovoltaic cells used to power the satellites currently suspended above our heads.
A few days ago, Cesi has signed an agreement to acquire the Dutch testing company Kema. Through this operation, whose closing is expected by the end of this year, Cesi will have the company's laboratories in the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and the USA at its disposal, becoming the most important company in the world for testing high voltage electrical networks.
In their laboratories CESI and KEMA are able to carry out tests in a controlled climatic environment in which, for example, the resistance of the components to ice or to extremely low or extremely high temperatures is tested. Furthermore, the "water bombs" and the floods also involve mechanical stress tests on platforms that simulate this phenomenon, which can also be carried out in the laboratories of the two companies", explains the company in a statement.
From a financial point of view, the union between the two companies will lead to the creation of a company with a turnover of 180 million euros, with 1.500 professionals operating in 40 countries around the world.
