Automatic network topology generator for transmission planning

Transmission planning demands a great effort from system planners to analyze all possible future conditions that can be expected in the operation of a power system in the midterm horizon, usually 10 years in advance. Identification of network elements changes which will be required to maintain system operation within planning criteria, is a periodical task that has to be constantly performed to reflect the ever changing system load demand, to accommodate the new network projects coming from the long term transmission expansion plans, and to consider the plans deviations which always occur. Revising the existing plans for the transmission system to satisfy the expected conditions in the midterm horizon, requires setting up a network model that reflects the network topology and the demand conditions for many different points in time within the planning horizon. This task usually is very time consuming especially if it is manually conducted. This paper describes the design and implementation of a network topology generator that automatically generates the system topology for any point on time whiting the planning horizon. A catalogue of possible network elements modifications produced by new network projects that can be defined in the process of midterm transmission planning, together with the computational tools developed to implement the automatic network topology processor, are described in this paper. The network topology generator drastically reduces the time spent by the analyst to obtain the required network models (from weeks to minutes), reducing time, costs and improving efficiency of the transmission planning activity.