A Practical Optimisation Strategy for Transmission Line Tower Spotting Considering Terrain Features

Tower spotting design in transmission line planning is a critical component, as it directly affects both project cost and safety. Conventional design approaches often inadequately account for terrain characteristics and global optimisation requirements, resulting in low efficiency or limited applicability in large‐scale projects. This paper proposes a practical optimisation strategy for transmission line tower spotting that jointly considers multiple safety constraints and terrain features to achieve coordinated designs of tower locations and heights. First, an optimisation model is developed to minimise total construction costs, incorporating constraints such as horizontal span, vertical span, and ground clearance. Next, a terrain‐driven optimisation method is developed, which utilises topographic peak points from the terrain profile as initial candidate locations for tower spotting, thereby substantially reducing computational complexity. The approach employs the Simulated Annealing Particle Swarm Optimisation (SA‐PSO) algorithm to achieve global height optimisation. Finally, the proposed method is validated using a case study of 500 kV transmission line planning in Guangdong Province, demonstrating enhanced economic efficiency while fully complying with all safety requirements.