Game theoretical approach for maintenance planning of large networks

Following the liberalization of the electricity market, network operators face new conditions and challenges: increasing cost pressure and restructuring call for new priorities with regard to maintenance strategy of the network. As a result, maintenance has turns into a multi-objective optimization task. This paper presents a game theoretical approach in order to solve this multi-objective task. The mathematical framework for finding the best solution to the planning problem under trading conditions is provided on the basis of game theory. Optimal coordination of the various maintenance objectives is performed by means of statically cooperative games. In this case, the different maintenance strategies are represented as individuals who want to maximize their benefit. The resulting solution represents a Pareto optimum in that all players´ requirements are satisfied to a maximal extent, i.e. the best trade-off between the different objectives is reached. Since all players are part of the same entity, it can be assured by the cooperative nature of the game that the final solution will lead to profit maximization for the enterprise. A German 110 kV transmission and distribution system, featuring a mixture of rural and urban areas, is analyzed in a case study. It can be shown that, by means of a game theoretical optimization, the investigated power system can be operated more economically without any reliability reduction.