Advancing Grid-Enhancing Technologies
Victor Diez is EPRI GETs R&D Leader. Drew McGuire is EPRI Director – Transmission and Substations R&D.
As the demand for reliable energy keeps growing, EPRI’s GET SET (Grid-Enhancing Technologies for a Smart Energy Transition) initiative is stepping up to help electricity companies deploy technologies that can handle this rapid load growth.
This project explores four key technologies aimed at boosting the electric grid’s capacity: Dynamic Line Ratings (DLR), Advanced Conductors, Transmission Topology Optimization (TTO), and Advanced Power Flow Controllers (APFC). EPRI recently released a series of white papers diving into these technologies and their potential to support a resilient and efficient power system.
Dynamic Line Ratings
DLR are a method for determining how much power can flow through overhead lines for a given allowable operating temperature. What differentiates DLR from other methods is the use of real-time data to account for local weather conditions that change every few minutes, such as wind speed and direction.
Because DLR can be relatively affordable and quickly deployed, interest in them has grown significantly in the last decade. While the technologies have been around for many years, the performance of DLR technology has recently increased with the higher deployment rate of cell towers needed to carry data from the field to the processing server, allowing for an acceleration in adoption.