A Multistage Expansion Planning Method for Optimal Substation Placement

The connection points between MV and LV distribution networks are MV substations. Optimal sitting, sizing and timing of MV substation placement is the major planning problem in MV-LV distribution system planning projects. In this paper the optimal MV substation placement problem is solved using Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) as a new developed heuristic optimization algorithm. This proposed procedure is determined the optimal location, capacity and installation time of MV substation, regarding the operating and optimization constraints. A multistage and pseudodynamic expansion planning methodology is applied to consider uncertainties in network parameters such as forecasted load, asset management and geographical constraints. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method obtained by ICA, a sensitivity analysis for the effect of ICA parameters on obtained results is applied. A graphical representation of results is used to illustrate the efficiency and capability of the procedure both from the planning and graphical aspects. The proposed method has been tested on a real size distribution network.