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.