Overview of existing and future wind generation and transmission development in northern Illinois

The objective of this paper is to provide a brief summary of current and proposed wind development in northern Illinois along with associated proposed transmission upgrades being studied. We will also provide an overview of some of the challenges that we have encountered as part of the study of the large volume of wind generator interconnection requests that currently exist in ComEd service territory. These challenges include capacity factors, off-peak thermal congestion, generator reactive requirements and generator dynamic models. We will provide a high-level discussion of the existing ComEd transmission system and typical flow patterns currently being experienced. In addition, we will discuss the flow patterns we expect as a result of wind generation during off-peak periods. We will also discuss some of the proposed transmission system upgrades that we feel will be required to accommodate the future wind development.