Two-stage transmission expansion planning considering reliability and renewable sources

This paper presents a new methodology for transmission expansion planning based on a two-stage planning approach, where the need of meeting the demand growth and the adequate usage of renewable sources are treated by two different tools. For the load growth problem, a metaheuristic-based tool searches for solutions with lowest investment costs, preserving a specific reliability level. For the adequate usage of renewable sources, a chronological power flow-based tool searches for reinforcements guided by the expected energy wasted, due to transmission limits, and economic benefits of maximizing the use these sources regarding the total of investments. The results obtained with a variation of the IEEE Reliability Test System — 1996, with high renewable penetration, are presented and discussed.