Capacity Expansion Modeling for Transmission Planning

    As we continue to add large amounts of wind and solar to the system and exhaust existing transmission capacity to bring those resources to load centers, it becomes increasingly important to consider resource and transmission expansion as an integrated process. For many utilities and ISOs, transmission planning is a separate, siloed process.

    ESIG, supported by DOE, is examining the use of capacity expansion models for transmission planning. This project examines capacity expansion model capabilities and culminates in a half-day public workshop on the morning of Oct 24 in Minneapolis, directly preceding the ESIG Fall Technical Workshop. We will convene both model vendors and transmission planners for a dialogue on how capacity expansion models can be used in transmission planning and what improvements can be made to the models or the processes. The main questions explored include:

    • What are the capabilities of today’s modeling tools and how can they be applied in transmission planning?
    • What do transmission planners need so that these models are more effective as a first step in the transmission planning process and can this be accomplished while still allowing these models to be tractable?

    CEM Workshop:

    Download CEM Workshop Summary

    Download CEM Developer Survey Summary Table

    Video Recordings

    Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions on this project or if you would like to be involved.