Equipment and methodology for linking overhead line circuit ratings to the output of nearby windfarms

Governments in many countries including UK & Ireland are incentivising a higher percentage of electric power from renewable sources. In many places achieving this objective is heavily dependent on wind power. Historically, networks developed to serve load and are weak in windy areas. Network development requires permissions and therefore takes many years. This paper explores equipment and analysis to develop a set of line up-rating characteristics linked to the output of wind farms. The system and analysis is to provide an interim measure to enable power planners to connect more renewable energy sources while permission for new lines is being obtained. The equipment involves line mounted current and conductor surface temperature transducers and weather stations arranged regularly along the route. The information is transmitted by GPRS to a Web server where preliminary analysis presents information derived from the data. Further validation and analysis is carried out by downloading the raw data from the remote server. At the time of writing the paper the physical works are complete and validation/analysis is underway.