Dynamic Line Rating Solutions for Alberta

阿尔伯塔的互联电力系统正在经历一个重大变化的时期。阿尔伯塔省政府表示，计划到2030年在阿尔伯塔淘汰煤炭发电，其中50%-75%的煤炭发电量将被可再生能源取代;煤炭发电目前约占发电量的40%，占所有电能生产的一半以上。随着这一变化的发生，预计阿尔伯塔也将经历人口和工业部门能源需求的快速增长，这需要扩大阿尔伯塔互联电力系统（AIES）的总容量。气候领导力报告设想在14年内建立一个30%的发电能力来自可再生能源的系统，其余的发电能力可能由燃气发电提供。预期的增长和发电源的实质性变化对合适的传输系统的设计提出了挑战。这些挑战因政策和法规而变得更加复杂，这些政策和法规要求必须不受限制地接受无价值发电，新输电的监管审批程序冗长，以及建造或升级线路的成本高昂。由于这些原因，阿尔伯塔的独立系统运营商（AESO）和输电设施所有者（TFO）对最大化输电系统利用率的方法感兴趣，以便阿尔伯塔拥有成本效益高、安全可靠的电力供应。该项目汇集了电气，计算机和机械工程的高级教授，研究如何最好地预测传输线多个跨度的环境条件，以及如何使用这些环境条件来预测传输线的实时载流量。该项目将致力于开发实用的解决方案，展示DLR对系统的价值。

Alberta's Interconnected Electrical System is undergoing a period of substantial change. The AlbertaGovernment has indicated that it plans to retire coal generation in Alberta by 2030, with 50%-75% of the coalcapacity being replaced with renewable sources; coal-based generation currently accounts for approximately40% of generating capacity and over half of all electrical energy production. As this change to generation fleetoccurs, Alberta is also expected to experience a rapid growth in population and industrial sector energydemand, 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 sourceswithin 14 years, with the remainder of capacity likely provided by gas-fired generation. The expected increasein growth and substantial change to generating sources present challenges to the design of a suitabletransmission system. These challenges are compounded by policy and regulations, which require that allin-merit generation must be accepted without constraint, a lengthy regulatory approval process for newtransmission, 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 theutilization 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 theexisting environmental conditions at the time, known as dynamic line rating (DLR). The project brings togethersenior Professors in Electrical, Computer and Mechanical Engineering to investigate how best to predict theenvironmental conditions across multiple spans of a transmission line, and how to use those environmentalconditions to predict the real-time ampacity of the transmission line. The project will work develop practicalsolutions, demonstrating the value of DLR to the system.