The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has launched several initiatives aimed at advancing its study that will assess the interregional transfer capacity of the North American transmission grid.
As directed by Congress in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the Interregional Transfer Capability Study will evaluate transfer capability across the major transmission interfaces throughout North America through a series of power system engineering studies.
NERC said the ITCS also will provide any necessary recommendations for increases to transfer capability to maintain bulk power system reliability.
The planning for the overall approach and the evaluation of the needed resources for the study began in June when the study was first announced. From there, NERC began developing the scope of the project, defining its objectives, finalizing the project plan, and getting technical teams in place.
NERC is conducting the study, which must be filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by December 2, 2024, in consultation with the six regional reliability entities and each transmitting utility in neighboring transmission planning regions.
In addition to the regional entities, NERC said multiple stakeholders, including FERC, the Department of Energy, and industry, will contribute to the study with collaboration and coordination key to its success.
To ensure stakeholders are kept informed throughout the three phases of the study project, NERC has launched several initiatives.
NERC launched an ITCS web page that allows stakeholders to easily find project updates and resource documents, including the scoping document and meeting schedule, among others. NERC said new documents and resources will be posted as completed.
NERC also said it would post quarterly updates to facilitate transparency and alignment among industry, stakeholders, and federal, state and provincial government partners, and plans to produce two progress reports each quarter that will be shared and posted to the ITCS web page.
The ITCS Update will provide a compilation of information on progress made throughout the previous quarter. The ITCS Technical Update, produced by the ITCS project team, will provide a more in-depth review of technical information throughout the study’s progress.
