Design of a High Capacity Inter-Regional Transmission Overlay for the U.S.

Interconnection wide electric transmission system has been envisioned to facilitate the growth of renewable energy, enhance reliability, improve system operating efficiency, and reduce emissions. In this paper, we propose an explicit planning approach for transmission design at the national level. It has been applied to the U.S. system to design transmission overlays for multiple future generation scenarios. Associated simulation results suggest that a national transmission overlay provides economic, environmental, and system performance benefits.