“Unique High-Voltage Transformer Testing Facility at General Electric’s Villeurbanne Factory”

A series of brand new buildings runs along the General Electric factory in Villeurbanne (Rhône), where the American conglomerate manufactures connectors for the whole world. Among these new premises, a cube of 27 meters side built on huge anti-seismic springs. “Ceramic connectors are fragile“, emphasizes Christophe Creusot, technical manager of the Energy Transition Institute (ITE) SuperGrid Institute. Inside the building, a current generator that can reach 200,000 volts for a few seconds, “which makes it a unique platform in the world“says the manager. Designed to test high-voltage transformer equipment, at 800 or 1,000 kilovolts, and subject them to short-circuits, this bench mobilized 46 million euros of investment, which this public-private ITE financed from its funds and thanks to aid from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council of 10 million euros.

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