An innovative disjunctive model for value-based bulk transmission expansion planning

• A “decimal-binary” disjunctive model is proposed for Value-based TNEP problems.
• It is mathematically strict and compatible to other methods or modeling approaches.
• It significantly improves the modeling efficiency and computational effectiveness.
• An algorithm is developed to determine the number of parallel candidates needed.
• The proposed method is useful for transmission design under high renewable futures.

This paper presents an innovative modeling approach for multi-stage transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) optimization problem. It efficiently extends the traditional disjunctive model to allow multiple parallel circuit additions between two buses, by using a decimal-binary transformation mechanism. Case study results indicate that this method may significantly improve computational efficiency, particularly for multi-stage bulk transmission system planning optimization with high renewable penetration level, which usually considers building multiple parallel circuits for significant number of candidate route.