Guidelines for transmission expansion planning in a regional electricity market superposed to imperfect national markets

Developing countries are experimenting important advances in the field of international electrical interconnections, which have demonstrated that the barriers imposed by the differences between national market regulations, can be overcome through suitable trade agreements. The implementation of a regional electricity market superposed to national markets seems to be a good option to facilitate a coordinated trading between these countries. Nevertheless the current regional trade environment poses new challenges and calls for new planning methodologies for the expansion of the regional transmission system. This paper analyzes and identifies the main guidelines that must be considered in the planning methodologies, in order to identify optimal strategies and secure investments for strengthening and expanding the regional network.