DLR use for optimization of network design with very large wind (and VRE) penetration

Due to the stochastic nature of wind and douds, the integration of wind and PV generation in the power system poses serious challenges to the long-term planning of transmission systems. Grid reinforcements always involve relevant direct costs while the average load factor of the wind and solar PV dedicated transmission lines is usually low. Additioually, in very windy sites, the same high wind resource that produces large amounts of wind generation and may congest the transmission lines transporting it to distant consumption centres may also have a beneficial effect in increasing the transmission capacity of those lines. In fact, the occurrence of wind not only contributes to the loading of the connecting line, bot also increases the line capacity, via the convective cooling of the cables - one of tbe main beat transfer mechanisms in conductor heat balance; in otber words, higher winds speeds contribute to faster cooling of conductor and therefore higher conductor's capacity potential. In this paper the existing methodologies to cbaracterize those thermal effects in electrical cables - usually referred as dynamic line rating (DLR) - are applied to several IEA Task 25 countries case studies to characterize the technical value of the dynamic operation of thermally congested lines, as weil as its potential economic benefits.