Authors : Umar M. Lawal; Umar. Bashir; Abdullahi B. Kunya; Abdulazeez Kabiru

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 4 - April

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/y27tmuw5

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/4bk2kvb8

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26apr165

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : Transmission Network Expansion Planning (TNEP) schemes involve assessing, designing, and implementing enhancements to the electricity transmission infrastructure to improve the network reliability, efficiency, and quality of the supply. Conventional TNEP schemes focus primarily on building new transmission lines and substations without adequately considering the potential for reconfiguring or optimizing the existing network assets. However, the installation of new transmission lines and substations is highly expensive and time-consuming. This research work, therefore, proposes the TNEP scheme of transmission network through the optimal reconfiguration of the existing transmission infrastructure and installation of new ones, to reduce the costs incurred through the network expansion, active power losses, and that of generation. Firstly, the existing structure of the network will be assessed to determine the transmission losses and loading on each line. Based on the network structure and line loadings, a predefined number of existing and new transmission lines will be defined and serve as the candidate solutions for reconfiguration and expansion. The TNEP scheme will be formulated to minimize these costs, subject to many technical constraints such as generation, bus voltage, and transmission lines' thermal limits. Due to its potential to effectively handle constraints by exploring feasible regions of the search space, the Squirrel Search Algorithm (SSA) will be used for the proposed TNEP problem. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme will be assessed by implementing it on an analytical IEEE 24-bus system. To ascertain its applicability in a realistic system, the proposed TNEP will be implemented on a real transmission network of Azerbaijan regional electric company presented in (Mahdavi, et al., 2021) and comparing its performance using the costs of network expansion, active power losses, and that of power generation as metrics. The proposed scheme will then be applied to the Nigerian 330kV transmission network to reduce the abovementioned costs.

Keywords : Transmission Network Expansion Planning, Power System Optimization, Squirrel Search Algorithm, Power Flow Analysis, Economic Efficiency.

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