An Efficient Optimization Method for Transmission Expansion Planning

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes a network synthesis model to be applied to the long-range transmission planning expansion. The problem is formulated as a mathematical optimization model that considers simultaneously two objectives: - the minimization of equipment investments and the satis-faction of an electric performance index. A projection strategy is applied to the model - a nonlinear mixed-integer problem - in order to determine the optimal relationship between susceptances and flows. It follows that the objective function of the resulting problem can be approximated by a piecewise linear function. The linearized problem can be thought as a fixed charge piecewise transshipment problem which is solved by a specialized branch and bound search program which allows a great efficiency in running times and core storage. Three case studies are presented and discussed. The quality of the solutions obtained by our exact method is compared with other heuristic methods currently in use.