UHV for Iranian power grid, will it be a reality?

The transmission system of Iranian power grid comprises 400 and 230 kV elements. Rapid annual demand increase of 7-9% would increase power consumption of current 29000 MW to 67000 MW within the next 15 years. Most of the consumption is located towards central and north regions, while new generation requirements may be towards south regions with new high fossil fuel resources and west regions with high hydro resources. As a result, the transmission expansion planning problem should be reviewed to consider the possible use of 765 kV transmission as an ultra high voltage (UHV) solution. In this paper, various scenarios are considered. With the so called network expansion planning (NEP) software, especially developed for this purpose, it is shown when, where and why higher voltage level is required, and for which scenarios, the use of 765 kV transmission is justified. In this work, WASP-IV is used for generation expansion planning for the study period of 2011 to 2021