Heuristic Planning for the Expansion of an Electric Transmission Network for the Incorporation of a Wind Power Plant

The increasing demand for electricity and the efforts to enable the transition to cleaner and low-carbon sources have led the world to a revolution. Power production from renewable sources is gradually increasing, requiring multi-scale planning for grid expansion. Given that the economic factor plays a significant role in planning the expansion of a transmission network, this paper seeks to present a methodology to facilitate the incorporation of new wind power plants into power transmission networks. Considering the interconnection of a new wind power plant with the existing power grid, the authors present a lowest-cost strategy for developing production and transmission systems in the long term. The paper also presents some analyses to detect any breaches or incidents that could jeopardize the safe and reliable operation of the electrical system. The proposed methodology was tested on the test system IEEE 39 bus.