Placeholder

TRANSMISSION OPERATIONS & PLANNING

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.

Learn More

Research Areas

renewables

Balancing and Reserves

Developing and refining tools and strategies to manage power system variability and uncertainty, while strengthening operators’ ability to maintain frequency stability, manage reserves, and provide inertia services

Learn More
Blackout

Emergency Operations and Blackstart

Developing new methods for including risk in operations and planning and developing novel methods for resiliency and system restoration assessments including use of non-traditional resources. 

Learn More
Again

Inverter Based Resources and Grid Interconnection

Supports the integration of inverter-based, and distributed energy resources in transmission planning and protection.
 

Learn More
LLI

Large Load Integration

We are improving how engineers’ model new and existing assets, including large loads, (e.g. data centers), developing tools to identify and mitigate modeling errors. 
 

Learn More
market

Market Operations and Design

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

Learn More
Ops

Operations Planning

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

Learn More
RT

Real Time Operations

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

Learn More
wind farm operators

Resource Adequacy

Evaluating and mitigating the risk of customer supply disruption.

Learn More
PQ

Special Assessments for Power system analysis

Focusing on geomagnetic disturbance analysis, harmonic modeling, electromagnetic transient studies, and sub-synchronous oscillation analysis for transmission systems. 
 

Learn More
Protection

System Protection

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

Learn More
transmission poles

Transmission Modeling and Analytics

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

Learn More
Resources

Transmission Planning and Integrated Planning

Coordinated planning analyses across generation, transmission, and distribution systems

Learn More

Featured Topic

What Are People Saying

M. Holland SSEN

EPRI’s expert analysis and recommendations have become the basis of our Future Operational Strategy in SSEN-T.

A. Lazo, M. Peterson and N. Meynard ENTERGY

EPRI’s analysis of Entergy’s PMU data was successful in identifying the source of forced oscillations with frequency range 3-7 Hz that are being observed in Entergy’s territory. These oscillations pose a risk to equipment and grid security due to possible interactions with the torsional mode of a nearby generator that could result in equipment damage and loss of generation. The identification of the oscillations source is also critical for the consideration of mitigation measures.

CJ. Jing Southern California Edison

The methodology and tools developed in this project serve as valuable resources for validating and identifying optimal earth conductivity models for GMD vulnerability assessments. These findings and tools provide our transmission planners with assurance that GMD models are accurate and that results are dependable.

N. Klöfverskjöld SVENSKA KRAFTNAT

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.

N. Mahatho Eskom

The restoration workshop provided training on using EPRI restoration tools and offered insights into the current state-of-the-art, industry practices, and challenges in power system restoration. It also helped contextualize these learnings for application to the Eskom system in terms of both strategic and operational planning.

Y. Alsharief Saudi Electric Company

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 Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional

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.

A. Boričić and A. van den Beukel TENNET

The EPRI DSA project enabled TenneT to validate our strategic vision for DSA while uncovering valuable insights into dynamic modeling and future-focused topics.

P. Dalton MISO

EPRI’s technical comments and thought leadership helped obtaining industry approval for all three NERC Milestone 2 IBR reliability standards in response to FERC Order 901, and paved the way for achievable assessment of conformity/ compliance based on leading and evolving industry practices and voluntary industry standards.

C. Burns National Grid

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.

J MATEVOSYAN ESIG

EPRI’s comprehensive analysis of voltage and frequency reliability services is a significant step forward in understanding the evolving needs of the modern grid and capabilities of existing inverter-based resources (such as wind, solar, battery energy storage) to serve those needs. This report is an excellent resource for advancing grid reliability while operating with higher share of inverter-based resources. ESIG and industry stakeholders deeply appreciate EPRI’s dedication in leading the task force and delivering such impactful research.

H. Soh KEPCO

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. 

N. Lacouve, M. Oparaji and D. Preas LCRA

We’re using ARTS to aid in automatic generation of TPL contingency sets for steady state studies. We hope that creating contingency sets directly from planning models will save engineering time, reduce human error, and ensure complete and accurate contingency sets to support high-quality studies.

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

Navigating the complex demands of the energy transition requires more than just new ideas—it requires proven, collaborative research. EPRI's TOP team provides comprehensive, end-to-end expertise in transmission operations and planning, covering everything from long term planning to real time operations, market design to system protection, and focusing on key issues related to modeling and analysis of new loads, IBR integration and power system resilience. We partner with global utilities and system operators, as well as industry bodies (NERC, IEEE, CIGRE and more) to turn leading-edge science into mission-critical capabilities.

Aidan Tuohy
TO&P Director, EPRI