Cradle of August blackout has done little to upgrade transmission

Cradle of August blackout has done little to upgrade transmission

Louisville, Ky. (Platts)--21Jun2004


The region of the US where the August 2003 blackout began will enter the
summer with essentially the same transmission system--and problems--that it
had last year, according to a new grid assessment by the East Central Area
Reliability Council (ECAR). Although North American Electric Reliability
Council regions are required to review the status of their transmission
systems annually, the blackout prompted ECAR to dig much deeper this year when
reviewing the expected performance of the grid this summer. The regional
council nearly tripled the number of scenarios it evaluated and found that
problems could occur. "On some days, under certain system conditions, we do
run into transmission constraints on some points on our systems," ECAR General
Manager Brant Eldridge said in an interview Monday. Among other findings, this
year's report found that the ability of the transmission system to support
imports from adjacent regions is likely to be more limited this summer than
last for power entering the region from the south and west.

But imports from the east and southeast are likely to be less limited than
last year's projection. Transfers between neighboring regions through ECAR
generally also will be less limited this summer compared to last. To evaluate
potential generation exports out of ECAR, the region was divided into five
"geographical generation clusters." The ability of the grid to support exports
from ECAR generation clusters "varies significantly depending on cluster and
export direction," the report explained. Exports are most constrained from a
cluster that includes Indiana, excluding the extreme southern portion of the
state, and a cluster that includes extreme southern Indiana, southwestern Ohio
and central and western Kentucky. Those are among areas where improvements
could be made in the transmission system, Eldridge said. "Eventually, there
will need to be upgrades and increases in transmission system capacity...[but]
there hasn't been much done since last August." ECAR includes all or parts of
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

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