Vulnerability-Constrained Transmission Expansion Planning: A Stochastic Programming Approach

This paper provides a stochastic programming approach to optimally reinforce and expand the transmission network so that the impact of deliberate attacks is mitigated. The network planner selects the new lines to be built accounting for the vulnerability of the transmission network against a set of credible intentional outages. The vulnerability of the transmission network is measured in terms of the expected load shed. An instance of the previously reported terrorist threat problem is solved to generate the set of credible deliberate attacks. The proposed model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear program for which efficient solvers are available. Results from a case study based on the IEEE Two Area Reliability Test System are provided and analyzed.