Increasing energy demand, restricted transmission grid expansion, and increasing integration of intermittent Renewable Energy (RE) generation adds to the complexity of overloads in the grid. The transmission systems operate with offline-special protection scheme (SPS), as a real-time protection measure for any overload mitigation. These protection settings in offline-SPS are often fixed with limited operational scenarios and are based on local measurements. Therefore, it causes limitation of Available Transfer Capacity (ATC) of the transmission line by emergency margin corresponding to overload.

Hitachi’s energy management system offers state-of-the-art differentiating feature of online-SPS which considers setpoint calculation for overloads due to grid accident with respect to its control countermeasures (e.g., power plant curtailment). The SPS can send a control signal to power plant automatically based on online analysis results to mitigate the overload of transmission line. With the SPS, ATC can be expanded by utilizing the emergency margin reserved in existing transmission lines. It is expected to reduce the substantial investment of excess transmission facilities for integrating additional RE.

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Note: RE: Renewable Energy, SPS: Special Protection Scheme, ATC: Available Transfer Capacity