The increase in the consumption of electricity, the stringent environmental restrictions and the need to keep costs, make ever more meaningful the need for a flexible operation of existing overhead lines. This paper studies the possibility to use a dynamic thermal rating for overhead line starting from the analysis of the mathematical model and the ability of the latter to reflect the temperature of an overhead conductor in different ambient condition; then it simulates the thermal behaviour of a conductor both in steady state and dynamic one. Finally the paper shows a method for a self-adaptive thermal protection system.