Assessment of tradable short-term transmission access rights to integrate renewable generation

Current regulatory practices in Great Britain (GB) grant future transmission access rights to constrained transmission areas subject to the completion of the associated transmission network reinforcements. This, however, may introduce substantial delays for generators to have access to the system and is of particular concern for wind farms wanting to connect in the north, remote from the main demand centres in the south. This paper examines the trading of transmission access rights, between conventional generators and new entrant renewables, as a possible short term remedy. An approach, using contingency analysis and sensitivity calculations, is described to determine the best candidate locations for the trading of transmission access rights between different generators. The approach is then implemented on a 250 node model representing a significant part of the GB system and results are elaborated.