Abstract:
This paper investigates the multistage expansion
planning problem of a distribution network considering reliability.
Thus, the best alternative, location, and installation time
for the candidate assets are identified while jointly accounting
for economic and reliability aspects. As a major salient feature,
the conventional simulation-based reliability assessment is
equivalently implemented through algebraic expressions whereby
the effect of the network topology is explicitly represented by
decision variables of the optimization process. For expository
purposes, the focus is placed on the expected energy not supplied,
which is a widely-used metric for reliability assessment. The
resulting optimization problem is cast as an instance of mixedinteger
linear programming. Hence, unlike existing heuristic
and metaheuristic solution techniques for reliability-constrained
distribution system planning, the proposed approach is finitely
convergent to the optimal solution and can be readily implemented
using commercially-available software. Simulation results
show the effective performance of the proposed methodology.
