Enhancing the Ampacity of a 400 KV Overhead Transmission Line Under Real Weather Conditions: A Case Study Using the CIGRE 601 Methodology

Abstract
A steady-state dynamic line rating (DLR) assessment was conducted for a 400 kV overhead transmission line in Slovakia using the standardized CIGRE Technical Brochure 601 methodology. The study was performed on the V427 corridor equipped with aluminium conductor steel-reinforced (ACSR) 243-AL1/39-ST1A conductors to evaluate the ampacity potential under realistic environmental conditions. Hourly meteorological data for the year 2024 were obtained from the Open Meteo API and included ambient temperature, wind speed and direction, and global tilted irradiance. The ampacity model accounted for Joule heating, solar gain, convective and radiative cooling, and the current limits were derived from the thermal equilibrium condition. The results showed that the average DLR exceeded the conventional static line rating (SLR) by 69.3 %, with exceedance observed during 99.4 % of the evaluated hours. The influence of weather parameters, particularly wind speed and angle of attack, on conductor performance was also quantified. These findings confirmed the feasibility of implementing DLR to enhance grid utilization, especially under conservative operating assumptions.
© 2026 František Margita, L’ubomír Beňa, Paweł Pijarski, Sylwester Adamek, Krzysztof Baran, Ardian Hyseni, Kristián Glajc, published by Technical University of Košice
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