Curriculum development: Transmission expansion planning for the California ISO system with renewable energy resources

The California ISO (CAISO) is responsible for planning the transmission system for approximately 80% of the load in California. California has a Renewable Portfolio Standard to serve 33% of its customer load from renewable resources by the year 2020. As such there are several major transmission projects that are under various stages of development to meet this standard. This Panelist will briefly describe a few of these renewable transmission projects that are currently under construction, and the associated planning analysis that was performed. In addition, information on more recent renewable transmission planning efforts at the CAISO will be provided. Observations regarding engineering skills that were required to complete this transmission planning work will be included and will be the main objective of the presentation.