A simulated annealing approach to evaluate long term marginal costs and investment decisions

In this paper, the authors describe a multiobjective formulation for the long term planning of distribution networks considering a number of important features. The model admits fuzzy representations for loads and evaluates nodal long term marginal prices. It integrates a number of criteria related to investment, operational and reliability costs, risk index measuring the ability to accommodate load uncertainties and the remuneration collected using long term marginal prices. After using a simulated annealing approach to identify efficient expansion plans, a decision analysis is finally conducted in order to select the most adequate plan. At a final section, the authors illustrate the formulation with a case study based on a Portuguese distribution network