Transmission
Planning

Quanta Technology uses a variety of economic planning tools (e.g., GridView, PROMOD, GE-Maps) to perform Market Power simulations to evaluate and justify transmission and generation expansion projects, asset valuation of existing and new transmission and generation assets, plant siting, and power transaction valuation. We have developed proprietary software tools to efficiently analyze the shifting economics of generation technologies and fuels, the intermittency of renewable resources, and the behavior and effects of energy storage all of which have a profound impact on locational energy prices and resulting prices of ancillary services.

The Quanta Technology approach to FACTS is to consider the entire lifecycle of the system starting with initial planning-level studies. Our services for transmission planning for FACTS devices encompass not only the conceptual studies for power flow, reactive and voltage performance, and rating studies but also optimization during the operational life from a planning perspective as system needs evolve. Our team of experts has been assembled to address a complete range of experience and perspective related to FACTS, including utility transmission planning and asset optimization throughout its service life.

Quanta Technology has the necessary expertise and history in supporting the diverse ISO and RTO planners on operating strategies and technical studies supporting foreseen reliability and security FACTS deployment throughout the operated grid. FACTS evaluation could cover reactive and voltage performance, and device rating studies to emerging topics such as system inertia and coordinated device operation. Quanta Technology also has the capabilities and tools to apply data analytics from ISO/RTO data sources to further optimize the operation of an individual or set of FACTS devices in a transmission corridor.

The planning of transmission grids faces increasing challenges due to factors such as the proliferation of distributed energy resources (DER) and the need to find economic solutions to reliably integrate large renewable plants. Quanta Technology serves the transmission analysis needs of electric utilities with services ranging from long range master planning to detailed technical studies such as validating models. We frequently utilize customize software and routines to complement standard transmission planning tools such as PSS/E and PSLF.

In this age of climate impacts and extreme weather events, Quanta Technology provides services to evaluate and improve transmission system resiliency. Our capabilities encompass a spectrum of resiliency elements including wildfire risks, earthquake vulnerability, gas/fuel disruption scenarios, CIP-014-2 requirements (R1 & R2), extreme weather, and aging infrastructure. Our approach is based on a combination of in-house tools and commercial software that cover a broad range of resiliency subjects.

Digital model representation of the transmission system has become a powerful tool in enabling advanced planning, studies, and compliance evaluation efforts. The development, validation, and maintenance of these software models has historically proved challenging to transmission entities, particularly with respect to ensuring model accuracy, integrity, and completeness. Quanta Technology has worked in partnership with large utilities through all aspects of digital model representation, covering conception and specification, data gathering and parameter calculation, and implementation and validation of model across a variety of industry-standard software platforms (including both CAPE and ASPEN OneLiner). To support the long-term governance of the model asset, we offer maintenance services and best-practice expertise to ensure data accuracy and integrity.

NERC reliability standards require careful monitoring to effectively manage system risk and mitigate corporate exposure. The standards have come into force over several years and have changed over time. NERC standards now cover several areas including Protection Relay and Control (PRC), Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), Transmission Planning (TPL), System Modelling (MOD) and Facilities Design, Connection and Maintenance (FAC). Quanta Technology is at the forefront of supporting customers with their NERC compliance requirements.

Utilities are frequently facing a multitude of processes, tools, and data assets in support of Planning, Operations, and Asset organizational units. To meet modern challenges, utilities increasingly have sought to integrate these historically separate processes, tools, and data assets in order to realize improvements in efficiency, communication, and data integrity across their entire organization. Quanta Technology offers a best-in-class approach to process integration by combining our foundation of industry domain expertise with purpose-built tools that enable alignment of processes and data across separate organizational units.

Quanta Technology works with transmission planners on a range of services related to the integration of renewable generation. Our capabilities range from wide area system impact of high penetration of low or zero inertia generation to developing and validating detailed models of renewable machines and inverters. We can also provide support in performing system impact load flow and other interconnection studies.

Quanta Technology has developed a best-in-class software tool, ESPT-T, for evaluating storage and other non-wires alternatives (NWA) yielding a techno-economic evaluation of alternatives to economic or reliability transmission constraints. Our tool combines standard transmission planning software such as PSLF or PSS/E and economic dispatch models such as Promod or Gridview to provide a thorough and rigorous 8760 comparison of wire and non-wire alternatives. The tool has a great deal of flexibility and can also assess value stacking of multiple revenue streams in different scenarios such as current and future market services that relate to a given NWA.