How much capacity does our existing regional electric transmission system truly have?
A new project spearheaded by researchers at UConn, in collaboration with
The project, launched through UConn's Eversource Energy Center, received an infusion of support from the
'This project is about how we're going to accelerate secure and reliable integration of massive offshore wind and other types of large renewable energy projects into existing transmission systems, thereby achieving the state and national decarbonization goals,' says
The project also contributes to
The project will deploy new solar-powered dynamic line rating, or DLR, sensors along the existing transmission lines in
The DLR sensors will be placed at strategic points on the 20.26-mile, 345 kilovolt transmission line between the town of Carver and the
Grid operators, Zhao says, have typically managed their systems conservatively - for example, transmitting only 800 megawatts on a system while their actual limit is 1,000 megawatts due to security and reliability margin reserves.
The goal of the project is to demonstrate how DLR sensors might help grid operators to maximize that gap in the load on the existing transmission system - and thereby accommodate the additional influx of power from new, renewable sources - without compromising grid safety or resilience.
'We want to monitor the real-time limits for all of those critical transmission corridors or transmission lines, and then based on that information, we can do optimized dispatch of the power flows through the circuits so that we are able to integrate more renewable energies securely and reliably without investing in new transmission lines,' Zhao explains.
Investing in completely new transmission lines would be both extremely costly and time-consuming as well as creating regulatory challenges and potentially causing disruption to local communities.
The research team instead hopes to show how the utilities might deploy advanced technologies to leverage that unused capacity that already exists within the grid - and wants to use this project to serve as a leader for the rest of the country on how to integrate new, renewable energy sources into the existing transmission system.
'Since this is the nation's first utility-scale, big offshore wind generation, if we demonstrate that this technology is going to work well, then developments in other regions - like the Mid-Atlantic or
The federal grant will contribute
'This project's demonstration will be in
'The integration of large-scale renewable energy projects like offshore wind will require significant collaboration to ensure our region's electric grid can accommodate the additional capacity while enhancing resiliency and reliability for our customers,' says
The project is also part of UConn's commitment to supporting and developing sustainable and clean energy research and innovation, says UConn President
'This is an outstanding demonstration of UConn's commitment to solving the most pressing problem of our time,' Maric says. 'Our place is at the forefront of education, research, and innovation in resilience, clean energy technology deployment and implementation, and sustainability, and this further solidifies our position as leaders and trailblazers.'
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