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Transmission Operations and Planning

EPRI's Transmission Operations and Planning Area addresses research and innovation for the Bulk Electric Power System through dedicated research programs and activities that address some of the largest challenges for society.

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Research Areas

Balancing and Reserves

Advancing the design and management of real time variability, uncertainty and frequency stability of bulk electric systems.

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Market Operations and Design

Monitoring, development, and assessment of electricity market designs and software enhancements.

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Operations Planning

Addressing the dynamic challenges of managing risk before real-time operation and preparing for emergencies.

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Real Time Operations

Optimizing information flow from the field to operations helps them recognize increased risks and react before the risks become reality.

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Resource Adequacy

Evaluating and mitigating the risk of customer supply disruption.

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System Protection

Developing the tools, methods and guidelines to advance grid protection capabilities.

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Transmission Modeling and Analytics

Models, tools and methods to ensure resilient, reliable and clean transmission networks.

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Transmission Planning and Integrated Planning

Coordinated planning analyses across generation, transmission, and distribution systems

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Iberian Peninsula Blackout

Sean McGuinness
Europe

Both the Spanish regulator and Red Electrica have released their investigation reports from the April 28, 2025 Iberian blackout. Since EPRI's prior webcasts, we have continued to analyze the factors contributing to the blackout and are reviewing the additional details from the released reports.

This summary details the operating conditions and factors that led to the cascading event and outage, as well as processes and capabilities needed to mitigate such events.

Image of Spain with the center of the country blacked out

What Are People Saying

D. Kempf

Through EPRI’s creativeness with tying operating and planning models, Great River Energy started to investigate the functionality of the ARTS tool to be used in addressing contingency generation and ranking. EPRI has been great in taking our suggestions and modifying the tool to create accurate events for unique bus and breaker configurations. We look forward to using this tool to assure accuracy in our contingency development as our and neighbor transmission systems change topology in the future.

M. Rhodes

Our collaboration with the EPRI team has yielded valuable insights into the inertia and frequency performance of our system in a future with high renewable energy integration. This outcome enhances our understanding of inertia and frequency dynamics, highlights the potential of various technologies to facilitate a smooth energy transition, and guides us in making informed, confident decisions moving forward.

A. Narváez

The technical specifications obtained through the excellent consulting services provided by EPRI will allow CENACE to contract its new control center to meet the challenges of operating the Ecuadorian electrical system.

N. Klöfverskjöld

With a change in the generation mix in Sweden as well as the connection of large electronic loads, SVK intends to keep participating actively in the user group meetings in order to receive feedback from the group and to share experiences on these changes, with regards to modelling and model validation.

D. Plumb

Work with the EPRI team was enjoyable and productive, the team was open to questions and provided qualified assumptions when established data could not be attained. Results encouraged TVA to consider additional roles that may be needed in a restoration event. The staged approach to the project allowed early results to be integrated with established policy and processes. Multiple use cases for BESS elements were considered and assessed to provide alternative functionality to the proposed specification of further BESS valuation.

Y. Alsharief

The addition of the protection testbed expands the SEC R&D Center's capabilities and service offerings, which will lead to the localization of service within SEC. It aims to increase the grid's reliability and helps us serve our customers better.

V. Velar

EPRI's collaboration on Grid Forming Inverter Technology provided CEN with valuable insights into generic GFM model performance in EMTP software. EPRI's expert team identified key areas for model improvement and offered crucial guidance for developing robust performance requirements, enhancing our capability to integrate grid-forming technologies.

S. Rizvi

NERC SPIDERWG couldn’t deliver its value without EPRI’s contribution

K. Parks

Our engagement with EPRI has advanced our thinking. We can quantify risk in an operational setting. This informs our plant commitment decisions to balance costs, reliability, and carbon reduction targets.

I. Singh

EPRI's GICharm tool was a great asset to determine the harmonic levels generated during the benchmark and supplemental GMD event to complete MISO’s TPL-007 GMD Vulnerability Assessment

H. Soh

The Korean electricity market is undergoing a significant market reform, and we are very pleased that EPRI has provided us with the opportunity to expand our knowledge by providing examples of various electricity markets in the U.S. We are eager to continue our cooperation with EPRI. In particular, we were very satisfied with the EPRI seminar on the nodal pricing market in Korea, as the participants were able to understand the concepts, operations, and issues in a professional and easy-to-understand manner. 

C. Burns

National Grid's partnership with EPRI on the PQ Transmission Voltage Sag Project, which included defining Areas-of-Vulnerability and IBR voltage support potential, highlights the invaluable expertise and support provided by a multidisciplinary team at EPRI in enhancing power quality and reliability for the transmission system and for our essential customers like semiconductor manufacturer, Global Foundries.

C. R. Black

The blackstart study has been invaluable in validating and optimizing our restoration plans and strategies, providing confidence that we can efficiently restore critical loads in a timely manner. The insights gained have been instrumental in identifying and evaluating potential locations for additional blackstart resources. Incorporating new technologies into our procedures will be key to ensuring we utilize the most optimal resources. This study equips us with the foresight to anticipate and mitigate future challenges, ensuring we have adequate resources to restore the Georgia ITS.

Transmission Operations and Planning

Research Areas

Balancing and Reserves

Market Operations and Design

Operations Planning

Real Time Operations

Resource Adequacy

System Protection

Transmission Modeling and Analytics

Transmission Planning and Integrated Planning

Featured Topic

Iberian Peninsula Blackout

What Are People Saying

D. Kempf

M. Rhodes

A. Narváez

N. Klöfverskjöld

D. Plumb

Y. Alsharief

V. Velar

S. Rizvi

K. Parks

I. Singh

H. Soh

C. Burns

C. R. Black

Tools & Deliverables

Transmission Operations (P39)

Transmission Planning (P40)

Bulk System Integration of Renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (P173)

Electricity Market Design and Operation (P246)

Additional Resources

EPRI U Transmission

TOP Newsletter

Advisor & Council Meetings

Transmission Operations and Planning Research: Annual Review 2024