Wide-area trans-regional northeast reliability

This paper summarizes the results of a reliability assessment conducted by Northeast Power Coordinating Council´s (NPCC) Regional Planning Forum (RPF). The RPF´s goal is to explore innovative approaches to reliably enhancing the capabilities of the transmission grid from a wide-area, trans-regional outlook. Scenarios of Canadian to United States transfers, New England to the Mid-Atlantic Area Council (MAAC) transfers, and New England to New York transfers illustrate the constraining transmission elements in today´s interconnected system, providing a starting point for additional reliability assessments. PowerWorld´s linear contingency and voltage analysis programs were used to analyze the system response to the transfers resulting from the scenarios considered. An additional investigation of the factors involved in reliably increasing the size of NPCC´s largest single contingency (currently approximately 1,500 MW) was also performed.