Impact of Considering Wind Power Uncertainty on Transmission Expansion Planning

Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) is a mixed-integer non-linear optimization problem that aims to determine the optimum lines to be constructed in order to transmit power and supply the current and the predicted load in a reliable and economical way over the planning horizon. This paper proposes a methodology for solving the TEP problem by integrating wind farms into the power system. A hybrid heuristic optimization approach is utilized to find the optimum branches to be built by considering wind energy generation uncertainty to show the impact of renewable energy resources on TEP. The proposed approach was applied to the 24-bus IEEE test system, where the optimal solutions of the different cases were obtained, and the results confirmed that wind power uncertainty does modify the optimal plan.