Reducing transmission investment to meet Renewable Portfolio Standards Using Smart Wires

Increasing societal concern for global warming and energy security have led many of the US states to adopt policies like Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Introduction of these environmental policies in the energy market are expected to have significant impact on grid operation as well transmission investment. The energy delivery system has to be upgraded significantly in order to make it capable of handling these changes. It has been claimed that upgrading the present transmission system to a Smart Grid would facilitate the integration of renewable resources. Smart Wires are distributed, low cost, autonomous smart assets that are capable of controlling power flow in a meshed transmission network. This paper studies the benefit of Smart Grid technologies like Smart Wires in reducing transmission investment that is required to implement policies like the RPS.