The increased need to manage California's electricity grid in real time is a result of the ongoing transition from a system operated by vertically-integrated utilities serving native loads to one operated by an independent system operator supporting competitive energy markets. During this transition period, the traditional approach to reliability management-- construction of new transmission lines--has not been pursued due to unresolved issues related to the financing and recovery of transmission project costs. In the absence of investments in new transmission infrastructure, the best strategy for managing reliability is to equip system operators with better real-time information about actual operating margins so that they can better understand and manage the risk of operating closer to the edge. A companion strategy is to address known deficiencies in offline modeling tools that are needed to ground the use of improved real-time tools. This project: (1) developed and conducted first-ever demonstrations of two prototype real-time software tools for voltage security assessment and phasor monitoring; and (2) prepared a scoping study on improving load and generator response models.
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