Transmission System Hosting Capacity Map

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) faces an increasing need to acquire generation resources to meet customer demand, as well as the renewable resource goals outlined in the Clean Energy Transformation Act. Developers seeking to interconnect generation to the system, as well as load (including charging of Battery Energy Storage Systems), face increased congestion due to factors such as electrification, EV adoption and an increased penetration of DER. This system congestion results in increased interconnection costs for the developer, who bear the costs of the system upgrades needed to accommodate these resources. This student team worked to develop a transmission system hosting capacity map to indicate to developers which areas of the system may be constrained and where there may be available capacity to accommodate new resources. This map may also be used to identify areas where PSE can target proactive projects to facilitate the integration of renewable resources. The hosting capacity needed to be determined for both generation and load in consideration of system performance requirements under NERC credible contingencies. The desired project outcome for this student team was a methodology and (potentially automated) process for calculating hosting capacity on all PSE transmission lines. This student team worked to complete calculation of hosting for both generation and load under a variety of NERC credible contingencies (including all lines in service, N-1 and N-1-1) for both summer and winter seasons for the upcoming year. As time allowed, this student team was able to work to study and represent additional scenarios on the map (such as studying an 10-year scenario to identify whether future system projects will benefit/impact hosting capacity) . This student team worked to deliver a GIS map that color codes transmission facilities based on the amount of capacity available for interconnecting new resources.

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