A Digital Twin Approach for Improving Estimation Accuracy in Dynamic Thermal Rating of Transmission Lines

Journal Article (2022)
Author(s)

Gian Marco Paldino (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Fabrizio De Caro (Università degli Studi del Sannio)

J. De Stefani (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, TU Delft - Information and Communication Technology)

Alfredo Vaccaro

Domenico Villacci (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

Gianluca Bontempi (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Research Group
Information and Communication Technology
Copyright
© 2022 Gian Marco Paldino, Fabrizio De Caro, J. De Stefani, Alfredo Vaccaro, Domenico Villacci, Gianluca Bontempi
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.3390/en15062254
More Info
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Publication Year
2022
Language
English
Copyright
© 2022 Gian Marco Paldino, Fabrizio De Caro, J. De Stefani, Alfredo Vaccaro, Domenico Villacci, Gianluca Bontempi
Research Group
Information and Communication Technology
Issue number
6
Volume number
15
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Abstract

The limitation of transmission lines thermal capacity plays a crucial role in the safety and reliability of power systems. Dynamic thermal line rating approaches aim to estimate the transmission line’s temperature and assess its compliance with the limitations above. Existing physics-based standards estimate the temperature based on environment and line conditions measured by several sensors. This manuscript shows that estimation accuracy can be improved by adopting a data-driven Digital Twin approach. The proposed method exploits machine learning by learning the input–output relation between the physical sensors data and the actual conductor temperature, serving as a digital equivalent to physics-based standards. An experimental assessment on real data, comparing the proposed approach with the IEEE 738 standard, shows a reduction of 60% of the Root Mean Squared Error and a decrease in the maximum estimation error from above 10 °C to below 7 °C. These preliminary results suggest that the Digital Twin provides more accurate and robust estimations, serving as a complement, or a potential alternative, to traditional methods.