Simultaneous Planning of the Medium and Low Voltage Distribution Networks under Uncertainty: A Bi-Level Optimization Approach

Abstract

Distribution network expansion planning (DNEP) is one of the important matters in the field of planning and operation of electrical power systems. Since many costs and losses have occurred in the distribution networks, it has increased attention towards this network. The electrical energy distribution network is divided into two parts: the medium voltage (MV) network and the low voltage (LV) network. The main problem in this field is that planning is done either only on the MV network or only on the LV network. While planning in each of these networks has a significant effect on the other networks, this important case has not been considered in most research studies. Therefore, this study has tried to do integrated planning in the form of a bi-level model in the presence of different types of distributed generations (DGs) and consider the uncertainties of renewable sources and load demand in both MV and LV networks so that the planning and operation costs are minimized. In the proposed bi-level model, the upper-level section aims to minimize the investment and the operation cost of the MV network, and the lower-level problem minimizes the investment and the operation cost of the LV network considering the DGs and pollution emission. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed model.