Economic evaluation of transmission congestion relief based on power market simulations

In recent years, a combination of increased bulk power transactions and insufficient transmission capacity expansion has resulted in frequent congestion in electric transmission grids in the United States. Congestion restricts the transfer of economic power between regional energy markets and efficient market operation. It is an important but challenging work to realistically assess the severity of transmission congestion and its economic value of transmission expansion to relieve the congestion. This paper describes an application of a power market simulation program in transmission congestion and transmission capacity expansion studies. Power market simulation programs, such as the one used in this paper, GridView, provide objective and systematic platform for transmission asset utilization assessment, bottleneck identification, and benefit analysis for system expansions. Effects of transmission congestion and interface capacity improvement are discussed through a real regional electric market simulation analysis of the NYCA system based on publicly available transmission, generation, and demand data.