Transmission Line Ampacity Improvements of AltaLink Wind Plant Overhead Tie-Lines Using Weather-Based Dynamic Line Rating

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 UTC 2017

OSTI ID:1375207

Bhattarai, Bishnu P.; Gentle, Jake P.; Hill, Porter; McJunkin, Tim; Myers, Kurt S.; Abbound, Alex; Renwick, Rodger; Hengst, David

Abstract—Overhead transmission lines (TLs) are conventionally given seasonal ratings based on conservative environmental assumptions. Such an approach often results in underutilization of the line ampacity as the worst conditions prevail only for a short period over a year/season. We presents dynamic line rating (DLR) as an enabling smart grid technology that adaptively computes ratings of TLs based on local weather conditions to utilize additional headroom of existing lines. In particular, general line ampacity state solver utilizes measured weather data for computing the real-time thermal rating of the TLs. The performance of the presented method is demonstrated from a field study of DLR technology implementation on four TL segments at AltaLink, Canada. The performance is evaluated and quantified by comparing the existing static and proposed dynamic line ratings, and the potential benefits of DLR for enhanced transmission assets utilization. For the given line segments, the proposed DLR results in real-time ratings above the seasonal static ratings for most of the time; up to 95.1% of the time, with a mean increase of 72% over static rating.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1375207
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-16-40455
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
Computational Fluid Dynamics
dynamic line ratings
general line ampacity state solver
power system planning