By Frédéric Vassort, CEO Ampacimon, Smart Grid solutions provider, Belgium.
SmartGrids is an overused buzz word covering all sort of applications enable grids to be operated in a more automated way.
Ampacimon offers a range of “real smart” applications, one of them being the use of sensors on high voltage transmission and distribution line to maximize their thermal capacity in order to alleviate congestions. Dynamic Line Rating is a technology making use of the fact that overhead lines are cooled down by prevailing weather conditions, which, if measured properly and translated into meaningful information flowing all the way to the dispatching room, enable grid operators to carry typically 30% more energy on their lines.
One specific use case is the use of DLR to quickly integrate more renewable generation, at low cost, and, even more importantly, within months, not years.
Biography
Frédéric Vassort, received his Masters of Electrical Engineering from ESME-Sudria in Paris in 1991. He then graduated from ESSEC business school in Paris and completed an MBA at INSEAD in Singapore in 2000.He started his career as an engineer at Schlumberger (now Itron), launching the ancestors of what are now the ubiquitous smart meters, in Europe and Asia. Later he led Business Development activities of Engie in Thailand, being in charge in particular of acquiring a hydroplant under a BOT scheme. Still in Asia, he also led Engie’s Energy Management business, paving the way to what has now become of Engie’s core businesses to optimize energy usage of large industrial companies. Back in Europe, he became General Manager of several business units of the American diversified group Danaher (Fluke, Tektronics), in charge of their sensors and controls business. Since 2013, Frédéric Vassort is CEO of Ampacimon, a 50 people SME based in Belgium, founded as a spin-off of Liege University. Ampacimon provides Smart Solutions for a Dynamic Grids to electricity grid operators, through Sensors and AI based solution to optimize their grids.