Long-term distribution network expansion planning by network reconfiguration and generation of construction plans

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power systems Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 1196 - 1204
• Main Authors: Asakura, T., Genji, T., Yura, T., Hayashi, N., Fukuyama, Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2003; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Construction; Contingency; Costs; Customers; Expert systems; Flowcharts; Investments; Load flow; Minimization methods; Networks; Optimization; Power system planning; Reconfiguration; Search methods; Studies; Substations; Switches; Switching theory
• ISSN: 0885-8950; 1558-0679
• DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2003.811170

This paper proposes a distribution network expansion planning method by network reconfiguration and generation of construction plans. Considering natural growth of electric loads and installation of new large customers, the method first tries to reconfigure the target network by changing switch status for loss minimization and analyzing security of the target network by contingency analysis. If operational constraints are violated even in the reconfigured network, the method tries to generate construction plan candidates, which can eliminate the operational constraint violations. The proposed method handles long-term yearly load increase and generates the best network expansion plans, namely, the best network reconfiguration and construction plans for each year of the target term. The proposed method is verified by comparing construction plans generated by the proposed method with the actual plan composed by experienced planning persons in distribution control centers. It is found that the proposed method can generate the same plans generated by the experienced persons. Moreover, the method can generate various alternative construction plan candidates. The results indicate the practical applicability of the proposed distribution network expansion planning method.