Improving method of robust transmission network expansion planning considering intermittent renewable energy generation and loads

Abstract

This study presents a novel method for robust transmission network expansion planning (RTNEP) considering intermittent renewable energy generation and loads. The investment cost of transmission line and operating cost are considered as the objective function of the planning. This study proposes to select the suitable scenarios to make the robust expansion plan for all possible scenarios based on intermittent renewable energy generation and loads data in a year. Meta-heuristic algorithm called adaptive tabu search (ATS) is employed in the proposed RTNEP. ATS iterates between the main problem, which minimises the investment cost and operation cost and the subproblem, which minimises the total power generation of conventional generators and curtailments of renewable energy generation and loads. This study uses AC load flow based on Newton-Raphson method and non-linear programming (NLP) based on interior point method for solving the main problem and the subproblem, respectively. IEEE Reliability Test System 79 (RTS 79) is used for testing the proposed method. The results show that the proposed expansion plan is more robust than the solutions from other research works.