Optimal Electric Generation Planning for Interconnected Systems by Benders Decomposition

Abstract

This paper describes a new approach for electric generation expansion planning of interconnected systems. The proposed approach is based on the Benders Decomposition technique. That is, the large scale generation expansion planning is divided into one master problem which is constituted by general Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) problem, and several subproblems which are composed of smaller scale isolated system generation expansion planning. Power exchanges between each system are calculated by using Linear Programming in master problem. On the other side, generation expansion plans are determined by the conventional approach in subproblems. Since the large scale interconnected system planning is decomposed into several smaller scale isolated system planning, both computation time and memory can be largely saved. In addition, the generation capacity installation and the fuel cost can be also expected to reduce by regulating the power exchanges and sharing common reserve of the interconnected system.