Simulation of Curative Congestion Management in Large-Scale Transmission Grids

Curative actions within operational congestion management seem to be a promising concept for realizing an efficient utilization of the transmission grid infrastructure and reducing cost-intensive redispatch measures. In contrast to today's preventive (pre-fault) use of market- and network-related measures to fulfill the N-1 security criterion, curative actions are implemented post-fault and hence allow higher utilizations in prefault situations. In this paper, the use of curative actions in large-scale transmission grids is analyzed. First, the model framework to identify preventive and curative congestion management measures is presented. A detailed model of the European transmission grid is used to analyze the potential of curative actions to reduce preventive congestion management effort. To evaluate the impact of the conceptual design of curative actions, multiple parameter sets are analyzed regarding considered market-and network-related options and technologies (generation units, HVDC systems, phase-shifting transformers), the limitation of curative adjustments and the set of considered contingencies. The results show that the use of curative actions allows to substantially reduce cost-intensive preventive measures by up to 69.2%, but requires large curative power adjustments. The limitation of curative adjustments lowers this potential significantly, which should be considered when developing operational strategies for congestion management.