Multiyear Transmission Expansion Planning Using Ordinal Optimization

The increasing complexity of the transmission expansion planning problem in the restructured industry makes simulation the only viable means to evaluate and compare the performances of different plans. Ordinal optimization is an approach suitable for solving the simulation-based multiyear transmission expansion planning problem. It uses crude models and rough estimates to derive a small set of plans for which simulations are necessary and worthwhile to find good enough solutions. In the end, reasonable solutions are obtained with drastically reduced computational burden.