Transmission expansion planning optimization by adaptive multi-operator evolutionary algorithms

•The transmission expansion planning problem is solved by an adaptive evolutionary system.•It uses multi-operators and a mechanism for dynamic adaptation of the selection probabilities of these operators.•Two sets of search operators are proposed: evolutionary and specialized.•The major advantage of the proposed algorithm is its flexibility to deal with different types and sizes of networks.•The mathematical formulation uses a DC network model including losses and accounts for the “N-1” security criterion.

This paper proposes a new evolutionary algorithm to solve transmission expansion planning problems in electric power systems. In order to increase the robustness of the search process and to facilitate its use by planners on different networks and operation conditions, the proposed method uses multi-operators and a mechanism for dynamic adaptation of the selection probabilities of these operators. Two sets of search operators are proposed: evolutionary and specialized. The mathematical formulation considers a DC network model including transmission losses and the “N-1” deterministic criterion. The proposed method is applied to a well known academic test system and a configuration of the Brazilian network.