Burns & McDonnell
Janson Ferrera is a Principal and Global Practice Manager for Burns & McDonnell’s Transmission and Distribution group. Sam Agranoff is Staff Electrical Engineer at Burns & McDonnell.
Answers are needed in the energy and utilities industry for how to meet increased electricity demand due to data centers, artificial intelligence, manufacturing onshoring, and electrification in general. FERC helped in December 2021 with a final rule, Order 881, aimed at more efficiently utilizing the nation’s transmission grid and lowering costs for consumers by improving accuracy and transparency of transmission line ratings.
Transmission line ratings represent the maximum transfer capability of each line and can change based on weather conditions. Order 881 requires all transmission providers to use ambient-adjusted ratings as the basis for evaluating near-term transmission service to increase accuracy of near-term line ratings. Typically, line ratings were based on conservative assumptions about worst case, long-term air temperature, and other weather conditions that could lead to underutilization of the grid.
While admirable to take aim at using more efficiently the transmission out there now, the difficulty comes in implementation. Enter Burns & McDonnell with FaciliRate, an automated software solution that uses a holistic approach for ratings compliance. To understand how it operates, Public Utilities Fortnightly’s Steve Mitnick talked with Burns & McDonnell’s Janson Ferrera and Sam Agranoff.
PUF’s Steve Mitnick: What is FERC Order 881 and why is it important in the work you do with utilities?