Black Sea Transmission Planning Project (BSTP)

Promoting Regional Cooperation on Transmission Planning in the Black Sea Region

The Black Sea Regional Transmission System Planning Project (BSTP) was established in 2004 by the United States Agency for International Development, the United States Energy Association and the transmission system operators of the Black Sea region to build institutional capacity to develop and analyze the region’s first common transmission planning model.  Members of the project working group represented the transmission system operators (TSO) of Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey. The BSTP concluded in 2022.

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Black Sea Regional Transmission System Planning Project (BSTP)

THE BSTP PROJECT WORKED TO:

  • Promote regional cooperation on transmission planning among Black Sea TSOs 
  • Identify priority investments in transmission systems and interconnections to improve reliability of the regional power system
  • Propose possibilities to enhance electric power trade in the Black Sea Region
  • Harmonize transmission planning principles, methods and perhaps methodologies
  • Create a working group with experts trained in transmission planning issues and well informed about the characteristics of participating power systems
  • Develop a common platform (common database, common software and consistent principles) for transmission system analysis among the TSOs in the Black Sea Region
  • Provide training in the use of transmission planning software (PSS/E)
  • Promote the results of the analysis to a wide audience of policy and regulatory authorities

WORKING GROUP

The BSTP Working Group had a consistent membership over the life of the project. Since 2004, the BSTP has trained over 200 engineers in advanced transmission system modeling. 

The Working Group developed the first detailed national and regional load flow and dynamic models of the high voltage network for the 2010, 2015 and 2020 planning horizons.  These models are used to identify bottlenecks to regional trade of electricity, model the impact of the transmission network on energy security initiatives, determine the potential to integrate renewable energy resources and identify network investment requirements. Over the course of the project, the BSTP working group has completed transmission network studies of regional importance for policy and regulatory authorities, international donors and financial institutions, among other stakeholders.  These studies have been credited with leveraging several hundred million dollars of transmission network investment.