Ampacimon director Javier Ortego earns Cum Laude for PhD on grid diagnostics

By AI, Created 3:01 PM UTC, June 03, 2026, /AGP/ – Ampacimon said Director Javier Ortego received a Cum Laude distinction for doctoral research at the Polytechnic University of Madrid on automated diagnosis of insulation defects in medium- and high-voltage networks. The work has already been industrialized and is being used by utilities across multiple regions to support predictive maintenance and grid reliability.

Why it matters: - Javier Ortego’s research targets a core utility problem: detecting insulation defects before they trigger failures in live medium- and high-voltage networks. - The work is designed to reduce manual interpretation, speed up defect diagnosis and support predictive maintenance. - Ampacimon says the research has already been turned into operational tools used by electricity companies across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Latin America.

What happened: - Ampacimon said its Director, Javier Ortego, received a Cum Laude distinction for his PhD in Production Engineering and Industrial Design at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. - The award was tied to Ortego’s thesis, “Advanced and automated techniques for diagnosing the condition of electrical insulation in medium- and high-voltage networks.” - The Academic Committee of the PhD Program in Production Engineering and Industrial Design at UPM said the distinction was awarded unanimously.

The details: - Ortego’s thesis focused on automated methods for diagnosing partial discharge defects in medium-voltage and high-voltage installations while systems remain in operation. - The research aimed to identify, classify and localize insulation defects without requiring network shutdowns. - The diagnostic process covered signal acquisition through generation of actionable defect alerts for maintenance teams. - The work combined electromagnetic measurement techniques, advanced signal processing and AI-based models. - The models were designed to identify defect types, affected insulation and defect locations automatically. - Validation included extensive testing under different stress conditions. - Experimental work took place at the High Voltage Laboratory of the School of Engineering and Industrial Design at UPM, known as LAT-UPM. - The research also used synthetic simulations based on real-world data from medium- and high-voltage transmission and distribution installations. - Ampacimon said the technologies developed in the research have been industrialized by the company. - The company exploits two partial-discharge monitoring patents developed with UPM and UFD. - The industrialization work involved partners including Red Eléctrica, EDP and UFD. - Ampacimon specializes in Dynamic Line Rating and grid monitoring solutions for transmission and distribution operators. - The company’s tools help operators optimize network capacity, reliability and asset performance. - The automated diagnostic tools are being used in predictive maintenance programs to improve grid resilience and strengthen asset reliability. - More information is available on Ampacimon’s website.

Between the lines: - The recognition underscores how academic research can move into utility operations when it solves a persistent field problem. - Partial discharge monitoring is valuable because it can reveal insulation deterioration early, before outages or equipment damage. - The move from lab validation to industrial deployment suggests the research met a practical threshold for real-world grid use. - Javier Ortego said the award validates years of work focused on operational challenges faced by utilities and grid operators. - Ortego also said Ampacimon remains focused on turning advanced research into practical technologies that support predictive maintenance, reliability and operational efficiency.

What’s next: - Ampacimon is likely to continue expanding use of the automated diagnostic tools as utilities look for ways to strengthen grid resilience. - The company said its broader goal is to help operators unlock hidden capacity, detect insulation defects early and accelerate renewable-energy integration. - The award may also reinforce interest in further research and commercialization around automated grid diagnostics.

The bottom line: - Ortego’s Cum Laude recognition highlights a direct line from academic research to deployed grid-monitoring technology.