Transmission expansion planning based on an Ant Colony Algorithm including distributed generation and security constraints

This paper presents a solution to the transmission grid planning problem using the ant colony metaheuristic algorithm, taking into account the effect of the distributed generation in demand nodes, as well as the evaluation of N-1 contingencies using distribution factors. The objective is also to review the literature where different metaheuristic algorithms have been used to solve this problem and to point out critical issues to find an acceptable solution using the proposed algorithm. Several results are presented in different peak demand scenarios in the most widely used systems for the evaluation of the transmission planning problem of the electricity network.