Post-DOE: 2015-present

For a description of EIPC activities prior to 2015, see the Archive > DOE Project Overview section.

The period of EIPC activities following the completion of the last DOE Study is referred to as the Post-DOE Period. EIPC continues to engage in collaborative activities that will enhance the transmission planning and coordination activities among the Planning Coordinators in the Eastern Interconnection. The EIPC continues its work on periodic interregional transmission gap analysis and linear transfer analysis, and to expand its collaborative coordination into additional areas where that will further benefit the entire Eastern Interconnection. The planned efforts will leverage earlier work undertaken by EIPC on roll-up case development and analyses. These efforts are summarized in EIPC’s latest publication “State of the Eastern Interconnection – A description of Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative activities and summary of results from studies and analyses on the collective transmission plans in the Eastern Interconnection”. (Link to be provided)

Specifically, the EIPC has completed work on two “Roll-up Reports” that combine the individual plans of each of the major Planning Coordinators in the Eastern Interconnection to:

  • Verify that the individual plans work together to maintain bulk power system reliability throughout the Interconnection; and

  • Identify potential constraints resulting from interconnection-wide power flow interactions that provide feedback to inform and enhance regional plans.

Following completion of the Roll-up analyses and report, the EIPC utilized these Roll-up power flow models to analyze various future scenarios of interest to states and other stakeholders.

  • EIPC continues to conduct analyses and provide support for interconnection-wide transmission planning efforts through the following:

  • EIPC is undertaking a gap and transfer analysis of a future case drawn from the Multi-Region Modeling Working Group (MMWG) library of Eastern Interconnection power-flow cases. This analysis will follow the same process and approach as used in past Roll-up studies, but will start from a case developed by MMWG rather than through a separate EIPC process. This approach will provide results similar to the Roll-up efforts that can be used by the Planning Coordinators in their regional processes, demonstrate a level of resiliency of the system to certain stressors, and provide insights into the MMWG model building process.

  • EIPC plans on continuing discussions with NERC to explore the potential for EIPC stepping into the role of the Designated Entity described in standard MOD-032. EIPC believes it can become the group to manage the MMWG in its work to compile power-flow and dynamics cases that are made available to meet the industry’s needs for baseline projections of the Eastern Interconnection transmission grid development.

  • EIPC is nearing completion of development of an EIPC Eastern Interconnection-wide production cost database associated with the 2025 Roll-up cases.

  • EIPC is developing a power-flow and associated dynamics case required to perform analyses of the frequency response of the Eastern Interconnection during a time period when there is a low amount of generation inertia. This case will be used to perform analyses to determine future trends on Measures 1, 2, and 4 established by the NERC Essential Reliability Services Task Force, in the face of changing resource patterns with lower system inertia (e.g. increased wind and solar resources). This analysis is also needed to provide input to NERC’s Long Term Reliability Assessment.

These combined efforts of the EIPC Planning Coordinators provide an interconnection-wide view and overall coordination necessary to ensure that the planning process is coordinated across all regions of the Eastern Interconnection. Additionally, these efforts will allow EIPC to stand ready to provide relevant, timely, and technically sound information on issues impacting the interconnection as a whole.