Optimal Transmission Switching for cost reduction in the Interconnected System of Paraguay

Traditionally, transmission assets are characterized for being fixed assets, and they are built based on redundancy to manage different scenarios in the long term, but this type of view can create congestion in some lines and increase the operation cost in the short run due to generation re-dispatch or load shed. Therefore, the Optimal Transmission Switching proposed takes into account the co-optimization of the generators dispatch and the network configuration, intending to reduce operation costs. Consequently, this paper presents a methodology to look for network configurations that reduce the operation costs, the considered case of study is the Interconnected System of Paraguay. Since the network reconfiguration represents a combinatorial problem, a methodology based on genetic algorithms is proposed as an optimization strategy. Finally, it was found that savings up to 1700 USD/h and power losses reduction around 10% can be achieved, all of them considering a safe operation.