Distribution Network Expansion Planning With an Explicit Formulation for Reliability Assessment

This paper investigates the multistage expansion planning problem of a distribution network considering reliability. Thus, the best alternative, location, and installation time for the candidate assets are identified while jointly accounting for economic and reliability aspects. As a major salient feature, the conventional simulation-based reliability assessment is equivalently implemented through algebraic expressions whereby the effect of the network topology is explicitly represented by decision variables of the optimization process. For expository purposes, the focus is placed on the expected energy not supplied, which is a widely-used metric for reliability assessment. The resulting optimization problem is cast as an instance of mixed-integer linear programming. Hence, unlike existing heuristic and metaheuristic solution techniques for reliability-constrained distribution system planning, the proposed approach is finitely convergent to the optimal solution and can be readily implemented using commercially available software. Simulation results show the effective performance of the proposed methodology.