FERC Seeks Remark On Implementation Of Dynamic Line Rankings For Transmission Amenities – Power and Pure Sources

On February 17, 2022, the Federal Power Regulatory Fee
(FERC) issued a Discover of Inquiry (NOI) on whether or not utilizing
“dynamic line rankings” (DLR) for electrical transmission
strains is important for simply and affordable wholesale transmission
charges. Transmission line rankings “characterize the utmost
switch functionality of every transmission line,” which may
“change based mostly on climate situations”¹ and
can have an effect on charges for transmission service. DLRs, in distinction to
much less refined score strategies, characterize how a lot electrical energy a
given line can transmit based mostly on a mix of things like
climate, stress and sag.² Extra correct and
clear rankings might improve grid effectivity, doubtlessly
lowering prices for purchasers. Accordingly, within the NOI, FERC
requested feedback on quite a few matters, together with “whether or not the
lack of DLR necessities renders present wholesale charges unjust and
unreasonable; potential standards for DLR necessities; the
advantages, prices, and challenges of implementing DLRs; the character of
potential DLR necessities; and potential timeframes for
implementing DLR necessities.” Preliminary and reply feedback
will probably be due, respectively, 60 and 90 days after the NOI seems in
the Federal Register.

FERC defined in a information launch that the NOI “builds
on” FERC’s Order No. 881, issued in December 2021, which
directed transmission suppliers to make use of considerably much less refined
“ambient-adjusted rankings (AARs) as the idea for evaluating
near-term transmission service in addition to for the willpower of
the need of sure curtailment, interruption or redispatch of
near-term transmission service.”³ FERC took this
motion as a result of utilizing “solely seasonal [or] static temperature
assumptions in growing transmission line rankings [can] end in
. . . rankings that don’t precisely characterize the switch
functionality of the transmission
system.”⁴ Inaccurate rankings can, in flip,
produce unjust and unreasonable charges as a result of “all else
[being] equal, as switch functionality declines, wholesale charges
improve,”⁵ and “inaccurate transmission
line rankings can lead to underutilization (or overutilization) of
present transmission amenities, thereby sending a sign that
there’s much less (or extra) switch functionality than is really
obtainable.”⁶

DLRs “can present internet advantages to clients, akin to when
the limiting component for a transmission facility experiencing
vital congestion is the conductor and situations apart from
ambient air temperature have a constant and vital impression on
the ability carrying capabilities of the
line.”⁷ As well as, utilizing DLRs
“typically permits for larger energy flows than would in any other case
be allowed and that their use may also detect conditions the place
energy flows ought to be lowered to take care of secure and dependable
operation and keep away from pointless put on on transmission
gear.”⁸ Nonetheless, additionally they include
“prices and challenges not present in AAR implementation,”
akin to so as to add sensors and keep
cybersecurity,⁹ so stakeholder opinions differ on
the connection of such prices to their advantages. FERC
“believes further info is required to judge the
relative advantages, prices and challenges of [DLR]
implementation”¹⁰ and can acquire that info
within the NOI continuing.

Footnotes

1 FERC, Information Launch, FERC Opens Inquiry on Use of
Dynamic Line Rankings to Promote Grid Effectivity, at 1, Docket No.
AD22-5-000 (Feb. 17, 2022),
https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filedownload?fileid=83303EB9-1548-C59D-9006-7F0971800000
(the “Information Launch”).

2 See NOI at P 5 (noting that “DLRs are based mostly not
solely on forecasted ambient air temperatures and the presence or
absence of photo voltaic heating, but in addition on different climate situations,
akin to wind, cloud cowl, photo voltaic heating depth (as an alternative of solely
daytime/nighttime distinctions utilized in [ambient-adjusted ratings]),
and precipitation, and/or on transmission line situations akin to
stress or sag”). See
additionally id. at n.1
(discussing Managing Transmission Line Rankings, Order
No. 881, 177 FERC ¶ 61,179 (2021)).

3 Information Launch at 1.

4 NOI at P 2.

5 Id. at P 8.

6 Id.

7 Id. at P 5.

8 Id.  See additionally id. at P
11.

9 Id. at P 6.

10 Information Launch at 1.

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