Market based transmission planning considering reliability and economic performances

Growth in electricity demand and new generation, a lack of investment in new transmission facilities, and the incomplete transition to fully efficient and competitive wholesale markets, have allowed transmission bottlenecks to emerge. Proper transmission expansion is necessary to insure adequate reliability as well as to relieve system congestion. This paper presents a transmission planning approach to evaluate the reliability impact as well as economic impact under the competitive energy market. Unavailability of generating units and transmission facilities is considered in market simulations to assess the overall performance of transmission expansion projects. Effects of transmission congestion and interface capacity improvement are discussed through a real regional electric market simulation analysis of the NYCA system based on publicly available transmission, generation, and demand data.