Stochastic optimisation of the power grids development planning
Value
Our optimization tool supports TSOs in Transmission Grids Development Planning processes, i.e. investments in new connections. The optimizer selects the best initial candidates and delivers optimal investment timetable with minimal CAPEX and maximal impact on OPEX.
Motivation
The key challenge in transmission expansion planning is finding an optimal investment taking into account many sources of stochasticity that are present in the energy system. These sources include a variety of market and policy scenarios, existing infrastructure development plans, changing technologies, as well as potential infrastructure breakdowns and weather dependent generation. Combined with a number of possible investment candidates these stochastic sources create an enormous computational problem which is not solvable with out of the box optimization techniques.
Innovation
Within the optimizer a number of original computational methods are combined in a novel way to allowing us to solve the problem in feasible time (one day). Original Optimal Power Flow formulations for Generalised Benders Decomposition, parallel computing and data reduction methods are the core of our tool.