Description
The Interregion Transmission Need, Historical, Baseline, US (v1.0) dataset represents baseline interregional transmission capacity across U.S. power regions as of 2020, derived from the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 National Transmission Needs Study. It provides a reference for total existing interregional transmission system size, expressed in terawatt-miles (TW-mi), to support comparisons with future transmission expansion needs, in addition to qualitative fields on specific regional needs. The dataset enables regional analyses of existing infrastructure, capacity adequacy, and cross-region power transfer capability under current system conditions.
Technical Description
The Interregion Transmission Need, Historical, Baseline, US (v1.0) dataset represents existing interregional transmission capacity across National Transmission Needs Study-defined U.S. regions in 2020. Baseline terawatt-mile (TW-mi) values are derived from Denholm et al. (2022a) and correspond to the total transmission length connecting regional systems. Each region is assigned a total-TW-mi value indicating its existing interregional capacity in addition to six qualitative binary fields describing regionally specific transmission needs. These baseline data provide the reference for computing percent growth and new transmission needs in future projection datasets.