A Projection-Adapted Cross Entropy (PACE) method for transmission network planning

In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the Cross Entropy (CE) method called Projection-Adapted CE (PACE) to solve a transmission expansion problem that arises in management of national and provincial electricity grids. The aim of the problem is to find an expansion policy that is both economical and operational from the technical perspective. Often, the transmission network expansion problem is mathematically formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program that is very challenging algorithmically. The challenge originates from the fact that a global optimum should be found despite the presence, of possibly a huge number, of local optima. The PACE method shows promise in solving global optimization problems regardless of continuity or other assumptions. In our approach, we sample the integer variables using the CE mechanism, and solve LPs to obtain matching continuous variables. Numerical results, on selected test systems, demonstrate the potential of this approach.