OPTIMAL ROBUST PLACEMENT OF MV DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS UNDER LOAD FORECASTING UNCERTAINTY

Traditionally the distribution networks planning studies were mainly in deterministic environment.Uncertainty of the forecasted load is a key issue in the distribution network planning problem that canchange the planning output pattern. This paper presents probabilistic MV (Medium Voltage) distributionsubstation placement problem under load uncertainty. Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) is adaptedfor the optimal planning procedure to optimal siting and sizing of MV substations. Monte Carlo Simulationis applied to simulate the load forecast uncertainty. The results are illustrated and compared withdeterministic substation placement outputs. Base on the results by considering of the load uncertainty it ispossible to design the distribution network configuration more flexible, robust and realistic with respect todeterministic approaches. The results are also indicated the efficiency and capability of the proposed methodthat has been tested on a real size distribution network.

Keywords:

Probabilistic Distribution System Planning (PDSP) , MV Substation Placement , Monte Carlo Simulation , Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) , Uncertainty