Increasing Capacity On Overhead Lines

While Utilities have been making significant investments in both upgrades and new overhead transmission, existing circuits are still becoming increasingly congested. We now have access to advanced line monitoring technologies and tools that can safely and reliably increase capacity on our overhead lines.

A transmission line’s physical properties, present condition, and operational limits can never be ignored, but asset utilization can now be increased reliably and optimized in real-time. While experts estimate that only small percentage of transmission circuits actually limit grid transfer capability, these circuits are responsible for a 10% to 20% loss in capacity. Both conductor temperature and line-to-ground clearance define, and then limit, maximum transmission line loading (ratings or Ampacity), but line ratings themselves are based on very conservative calculations and are almost always static.

Our challenge has been simultaneously enabling maximum power transfer (up to the thermal limit of the line), so that the asset can be utilized as efficiently as possible, and maintaining operational reliability and safety. Newly available line monitoring technologies can provide real-time information on the physical state and limits of our transmission lines under the full ranges of both line loading and weather conditions.

Load growth, increasing congestion, and everpresent reliability issues are forcing the industry to look much more closely at the existing transmission infrastructure. There is no question that we need new transmission, but we also need to upgrade existing lines, and our engineers and system operators need to find new and reliable means to safely tap excess capacity in the existing grid. Fortunately, we now have access to sophisticated smart grid technologies to capture and utilize this excess capacity. New line monitoring technologies measure the real time sag and temperature of the conductor and calculate ground clearances in critical spans; software then uses this high accuracy line data to provide dynamic ratings for these vital components.

Join us and our ALCAN CABLE and PROMETHEAN DEVICES sponsors as we present our third in a series of Web Seminars on 'Increasing Grid Capacity' and discuss monitoring devices and software available to capture and utilize additional transfer capacity in existing transmission assets.

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