DER Impacts and Equity Considerations for Transmission Assets in a Multi Area Network

Due to the rising trend in Distributed Energy Resource (DER) integration it is important to understand the impacts of DER in a multi area network. Transmission line utilization can be altered due to the DER penetration in adjacent areas. These impacts are not considered in traditional transmission planning studies. This paper investigates adjacent area DER impacts on transmission lines from a transmission owner perspective. In order to quantify the transmission line impacts a metric named Performance Index (PI) is developed. Due to the adjacent area DER penetration; over-utilization, under-utilization and no change in utilization of transmission lines were captured using this metric along with their probability of occurrence. The results showed that there can be significant impact on transmission lines in a non-DER area due to the adjacent area DERs. Economic analysis is carried out to capture the loss or benefit in line revenues due to the change in line utilization. The results from the economic analysis also showed that there can be significant impacts in line revenue recovery due to the adjacent area DERs.