NPRR1198  Congestion Mitigation Using Topology Reconfigurations

This Nodal Protocol Revision Request (NPRR) defines Extended Action Plan (EAP), adds EAP as a type of Constraint Management Plan (CMP) suitable for managing congestion that is resolvable by Security-Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED), and removes language limiting the application of EAPs to congestion issues for which there exists no feasible SCED. The related NOGRR258 proposes changes that add language to allow the use of EAPs to address congestion that is resolvable by SCED, adds guardrails to ensure that topology reconfiguration requests meet basic reliability and economic criteria, and defines the process for submission, review, and approval of EAPs. This NPRR and NOGRR258 leverage ERCOT’s existing CMP process to quickly mitigate critical transmission congestion impacts by establishing a scalable process for topology reconfiguration requests that is transparent, predictable, equitable, workable, reliable, and compatible with existing planning processes. ERCOT already leverages topology optimization in the CMP processes. Since NPRR529, Congestion Management Plan, was introduced in 2013 with the limitations that this NPRR proposes to revise, the power industry has evolved and there have been technological improvements that make transmission topology reconfigurations a powerful option to mitigate congestion beyond just use cases for which there is no feasible SCED solution.