Heuristics for efficient transmission network expansion planning with load uncertainties

Transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) problem is a major aspect of power system planning which must account for the load uncertainties in a practical system. However, this increases the computational burden very significantly. This paper presents a heuristic method to address the problem in an efficient way. A two stage method is developed, where the first stage comprises of solving DC, crisp TNEP, and the second stage utilizes the information obtained from first stage to constitute suitable heuristics to be used with any metaheuristics aimed at reducing the overall computational burden. DC boundary power flow approach is used to account for the load uncertainties. Two well-known test systems of 6 bus Garver and IEEE 24 bus system are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in both base case and contingency cases. An improved harmony search (IHS) algorithm is used to test the effectiveness of developed heuristics.