Identification of Generation and Network Expansion Locations to Meet Growing Loads Using Relative Electrical Distance Approach

Abstract

Ever growing demand for the electric power requires timely expansion of generations and networks. It is observed that these expansions may not often be done optimally and the load concentration locations and generation expansion locations may not always match up. To address this problem of meeting the growing loads optimally, a concept of relative electrical distance (RED) is applied to identify the optimum generation reschedule values and also system expansion locations. The approach of RED computes the relative electrical distances between the generation and load buses using the transmission network parameters. Using this approach, the amount of generation increase or evacuation required can be identified. This paper presents the approach using a sample 16-bus system and a practical 72-bus system, an equivalent of Indian southern grid. Studies are carried out considering short term and long term load growths and the results obtained are validated using power flows. The different scenarios studied are assessed based on their minimum voltage, MW loss values, Minimum Singular Value etc. Few aspects like cost estimation for network expansion, loss shared by different generations etc, are also computed, and it is finally concluded that the best tradeoff between the two expansions is to be honored.