Hourly Dynamic Line Ratings for Existing Transmission Across the Contiguous United States (Preliminary)

This dataset provides estimated hourly dynamic line ratings for ~84,000 transmission lines across the contiguous United States from 2007-2013. The calculation methods are described in the presentation linked below, and the associated open-source Python code repository is linked in the Resources section below.

Abbreviations used in filenames and descriptions are:
- SLR: static line ratings
- ALR: ambient-temperature-adjusted line ratings
- NLR: ambient-temperature- and day/night-irradiance-adjusted line ratings
- CLR: ambient-temperature- and clear-sky-irradiance-adjusted line ratings
- ILR: ambient-temperature- and measured-irradiance-adjusted line ratings
- DLR: full dynamic line ratings (including air temperature/pressure, wind speed/direction, and measured irradiance)

Transmission lines are referenced by their ID in the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) on Transmission Lines (linked in Resources section). Time indices are in UTC. The data files contain ratios between modeled hourly ratings and modeled static ratings. Columns are indexed by HIFLD ID; rows are indexed by hourly timestamps from 2007-2013 (UTC). A data directory is also included in the Resources section.

The SLR files contain modeled static ratings (the denominator of the ratios in the files described above) in amps. As described in the presentation linked in the Resources section below, SLR calculations assume an ambient air temperature of 40 C, air pressure of 101 kPa, wind speed of 2 feet per second (0.61 m/s) perpendicular to the conductor, global horizontal irradiance of 1000 W/m^2, and conductor absorptivity and emissivity of 0.8. Conductor assumptions are Linnet for ~69 kV and below, Condor for ~115 kV, Martin for ~230 kV, and Cardinal for ~345 kV and above.

Caveats and Limitations

Results are sensitive to the weather data used. Validation studies on the WIND Toolkit and NSRDB are available at:
- King, J. et al. "Validation of Power Output for the WIND Toolkit", 2014 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/61714.pdf)
- Draxl, C. et al. "Overview and Meteorological Validation of the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit", 2015 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/61740.pdf)
- Sengupta, M. et al. "Validation of the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) (2005-2012)", 2015 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/64981.pdf)
- Habte, A. et al. "Evaluation of the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB Version 2): 1998-2015", 2017 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/67722.pdf)

More work is required to determine how well ratings calculated from NSRDB and WIND Toolkit data reflect the actual ratings observed by installed sensors (such as sag or tension monitors). In general, ratings calculated from modeled weather data are not a substitute for direct sensor data.

Assuming a single representative conductor type (ACSR of a single diameter) for each voltage level is an important simplification; reported line ratings at a given voltage level can vary widely.

HIFLD line routes are primarily based on imagery instead of exact construction data and may have errors.

We use historical weather data directly; calculated line ratings are thus more indicative of real-time ratings than forecasted ratings