Transmission expansion planning using multi-objective optimization

The electricity industry has always been interested in expanding investment in the transmission sector of the industry. As load demand increases and generation expands to meet the need, transmission expansion becomes important in order to increase social welfare by reducing total system operating cost, and to make the system more reliable. A methodology for contemporary transmission expansion planning using Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Multi-Objective Optimization to reduce total system operating cost (congestion alleviation) and line construction/investment cost is explored here. The Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Multi-Objective Optimization includes network constraints (line thermal limits, voltage limits, and generator limits). Contingency analysis is performed after the optimization. The methodology is applied to an IEEE 30-bus system, an IEEE 118-bus system, and the results are presented.