A new adequacy evaluation method for transmission expansion planning problems

Abstract

Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) problem refers to proposing the optimal number and location of new transmission lines in order to satisfy operation conditions with less investment costs. Adequacy evaluation of trial solutions is essential to solve TEP problem. This evaluation procedure may require a considerable computational effort; therefore, improvement of Adequacy Evaluation Methods (AEMs) is a key to achieve more effcient TEP solution algorithms. It is a common practice to employ a Linear Programming (LP) called \DC operation model" to perform this evaluation, especially in cases that generation rescheduling is considered in TEP studies. In this paper, an AEM is proposed as an alternative with less computational effort to perform adequacy evaluation. In fact, the proposed AEM is applicable in TEP problems considering generation rescheduling. The study is based on DC TEP model where electrical aspect of the problem is modeled based on DC power ow equations. To examine the performance of the proposed AEM, this evaluation method is employed in a meta-heuristic TEP solution algorithm. Such a combinatorial algorithm is then applied to different standard test systems as well as practical cases. The simulation results show a promising improvement caused by employment of the proposed AEM.