Benefits of wheeling economy energy in Canada: quantification and sensitivity analysis

The paper describes the studies carried out by the National Energy Board to quantify potential wheeling benefits as part of its review of possible measures for enhancing transmission access in Canada. Computer simulations were performed on a planning time horizon to determine potential benefits from bilateral exchanges of economy energy and the additional benefits which could result from various wheeling arrangements. The simulations modelled the interconnected power systems of eastern Canada and the neighbouring American utilities which make up the Northeast Power Coordinating Council. From these simulations, the potential benefits for each system involved as well as the net potential benefits were determined. The CPU time for the simulations ranged from 14 h to 46 h on a VAX 8200 minicomputer. Sensitivity analyses were also performed to establish the sensitivity of the results to some operational assumptions and parameters used in the studies