Dynamic Line Rating Solutions for Alberta

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Alberta's Interconnected Electrical System is undergoing a period of substantial change. The Alberta Government has indicated that it plans to retire coal generation in Alberta by 2030, with 50%-75% of the coal capacity being replaced with renewable sources; coal-based generation currently accounts for approximately 40% of generating capacity and over half of all electrical energy production. As this change to generation fleet occurs, Alberta is also expected to experience a rapid growth in population and industrial sector energy demand, requiring expansion of the overall capacity of the Alberta Interconnected Electrical System (AIES). The Climate Leadership Report envisages a system with 30% of generating capacity from renewable sources within 14 years, with the remainder of capacity likely provided by gas-fired generation. The expected increase in growth and substantial change to generating sources present challenges to the design of a suitable transmission system. These challenges are compounded by policy and regulations, which require that all in-merit generation must be accepted without constraint, a lengthy regulatory approval process for new transmission, and the high cost to build or upgrade lines. For these reasons, the independent system operator (AESO) and transmission facility owners (TFO's) in Alberta are interested in approaches that maximize the utilization of transmission systems such that Alberta has a cost-effective, safe and reliable electrical supply. One approach to maximize transmission utilization is to dynamically operate systems to the safe limit of the existing environmental conditions at the time, known as dynamic line rating (DLR). The project brings together senior Professors in Electrical, Computer and Mechanical Engineering to investigate how best to predict the environmental conditions across multiple spans of a transmission line, and how to use those environmental conditions to predict the real-time ampacity of the transmission line. The project will work develop practicalsolutions, demonstrating the value of DLR to the system.