Integrating Southwest Power Pool Wind to Southeast Electricity ...

of the generation while being limited only by hurdle rates given that losses were removed in the
previous step.
Removing Losses small change in
generation export & economic flows.
Unconstraining Transmission big
change in generation export
Figure 2-1
Comparison of Average Net Flow Out of Each Region for 7 and 14 GW Cases
Conclusions
In order to effectively investigate the scheduling/balancing challenges of utilizing SPP wind
generation to meet a 20% RES across the SPP and SERC footprint and to evaluate the benefits of
coordination between regions in meeting this challenge, the modeled transmission system would
either have to be expanded or “unconstrained” to allow the new wind generation to be delivered.
Developing a reasonable transmission expansion plan that was acceptable to all stakeholders was
outside the scope of the project. Test cases simulated to better understand the impacts of
removing transmission system losses and thermal constraints show that the primary impact is
from removing the constraints. Since the study is not evaluating the capital costs of transmission
that would be needed to support wind transfers from SPP to SERC, the gross “unconstrained”
assumption is an approximation of the assumption that transmission will exist to support wind
transfers in order for the wind to be developed for export. While certainly not a perfect
assumption, the project team believes that it does allow for an assessment of the benefits of
coordination for scheduling/balancing with some appropriate caveats.
As such, all of the High Wind Transfer cases that are described in detail in the remainder of this
report are simulated using the UPLAN Transportation mode solution method where losses and
thermal constraints are not respected. As with all of the results of the project, the specific
quantitative results obtained from these simulations are less important than the insights that are
obtained by comparison between cases as specific scenario parameters are changed. Where
appropriate in the presentation of results, it is noted how the “unconstrained” transmission
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