Available Transmission Capacity Assessment

Abstract

Effective power system operation requires the analysis of vast amounts of information. Power market activities expose power transmission networks to high-level power transactions that threaten normal, secure operation of the power system. When there are service requests for a specific sink/source pair in a transmission system, the transmission system operator (TSO) must allocate the available transfer capacity (ATC). It is common that ATC has a single numerical value. Additionally, the ATC must be calculated for the base case configuration of the system, while generation dispatch and topology remain unchanged during the calculation. Posting ATC on the internet should benefit prospective users by aiding them in formulating their requests. However, a single numerical value of ATC offers little for prospect for analysis, planning, what-if combinations, etc. A symbolic approach to the power flow problem (DC power flow and ATC) offers a numerical computation at the very end, whilst the calculation beforehand is performed by using symbols for the general topology of the electrical network. Qualitative analysis of the ATC using only qualitative values, such as increase, decrease or no change, offers some new insights into ATC evaluation, multiple transactions evaluation, value of counter-flows and their impact etc. Symbolic analysis in this paper is performed after the execution of the linear, symbolic DC power flow. As control variables, the mathematical model comprises linear security constraints, ATC, PTDFs and transactions. The aim is to perform an ATC sensitivity study on a five nodes/seven lines transmission network, used for zonal market activities tests. A relatively complicated environment with twenty possible bilateral transactions is observed.