Siting, Sizing, Timing and Determining the Service Area of MV/LV Transformers: A Novel Approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel approach for siting, sizing, timing and determining the service area of medium voltage/low voltage (MV/LV) distribution transformers. Considerable modifications were made to a previous model by changing the objective function and increasing the constraint set to overcome its drawbacks. The objective function includes both the fixed and the variable costs of the MV/LV transformers. Electrical constraints, such as the voltage drop, radiality, transformer loading and power flow, are taken into account and a number of constraints are added to overcome some non-linearities in the objective function. For the first time, installation and removal costs of both the transformers and the feeders are incorporated to the objective function. Because the objective function is converted into a multi-interrelated-period function, the timing of installation and removal of transformers in 10 consecutive years is carried out more efficiently. The performance of the proposed model is demonstrated by using extensive computational simulation using the CPLEX 11.2 solver.