MULTIOBJECTIVE PLANNING OF THE OPTIMAL VOLTAGE PROFILE IN ELECTRIC POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

Multiobjective planning models for electric power distribution system planning can include multiple aspects such as community amenity values, geographical conditions of the study area, reliability evaluations (mainly in terms of service continuity), or the optimal voltage profile in the network, as well as the basic planning aspects: power demand requirements, power capacity limits and the minimization of the total system expansion costs. On the other hand, classical single objective planning models have usually considered only the basic aspects. This paper describes a multiobjective model to find the optimal voltage profile and to look for the least cost system expansion simultaneously. Furthermore, two multiobjective techniques for the application of the model to distribution system expansion problems are outlined. The computer results have shown that multiobjective models are able to find solutions which include multiple planning objectives simultaneously, and that these solutions are advantageous compared with the ones from classical single objective models.