Comparison of particle swarm based meta-heuristics for the electric transmission network expansion planning problem

The Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) problem is considered a very complex problem due to its combinatorial and nonconvex features. Some analytical and meta-heuristic methods have been proposed to tackle it, however, it is recognized that new efficient optimization tools are still needed. Particle Swarm Optimization has been an evolving research area in the last ten years and many interesting and successful applications in a variety of complex problems have shown the potential of this technique. In this work, two state of art Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based algorithms, known as Unified Particle Swarm Optimization (UPSO) and Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO), are used to solve the above-mentioned problem. Comparisons, detailed analysis, guidelines and particularities are shown in order to apply the PSO technique for realistic systems. Also, results are provided for test and realistic power systems.