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19 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 ■ TALENT ■ CULTURE PLACE ■ HISTORY ■ SUPPORT ■ OPEN/INDUSTRY ORIENTATION ■ GLOBAL LINKS ■ RESEARCH Why Manchester? Chart illustrates the factors that influenced Arago Technology Scottish Hydro Electric has co-funded projects with National Grid and the UMIP Premier Fund invested over £2m. Research testing has included live tests in the Lech ski resort which was remotely monitored on 132kV lines and these have now been successfully tested at 400kV for over 12 months. They have been tested in winds of over 100mph. Plastics used in overhead line towers offer the chance of saving weight in the cross-arms and through reduction in height. In turn this also reduces the amount of concrete used in the foundations and consequently transport costs. These represent considerable savings because reductions in height reduce the size of the lower parts of the structure, ie, the larger and more costly elements of the towers. Alternatively these effects enable the use of higher voltages in existing towers. Arago was awarded the Power and Energy Award for the IET 2012 Innovation Awards out of over 200 entries. The University's main role is now to support the company and ensure that it can become self-sufficient for its day-to-day development. Sales have begun, initially for niche applications such as coping with restricted overhead clearance. The company will then focus on scaling-up for true volume manufacture but it already knows what it needs to do to deliver quality and predictability at volume. In the past most of the innovation was in transmission. With innovations such as 'smart grids' the focus has shifted to distribution and in response, the University now works closely also with distribution companies and suppliers of equipment as well as companies such as Siemens. It's not just having the skills, the assets and the reputation – what also matters is what is done to seize opportunities when they are recognised. www.aragotechnology.com Six 132kV cross arms have been fitted to electricity pylons on the Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission network near Aberdeen