| The design of AC/DC power transmission networks is a complex, time-consuming problem. Although a variety of power system tools are available for this purpose, planning engineers still rely heavily on their experience to determine which alternative network designs are the most suitable. This is particularly true when multiple measures of evaluation such as cost, reliability and other technical criteria have to be balanced against environmental and socio-economic considerations. The present design practices rely mainly on time-consuming detailed analysis tools thereby restricting the number of designs that can be reasonably processed. Furthermore, much of the available design knowledge is dispersed over numerous sources, particularly the experience of human experts.;In this thesis, a new software tool called TIDE (Transmission Intelligent Design Environment) has been developed which provides the design engineer with a fast, integrated and intelligent environment for the preliminary design of point-to-point transmission systems. The goals of this environment were to identify, model and preserve design expertise in a computerized user-friendly environment, to integrate this expertise with the main network analysis tools (load flow, transient stability, reliability and costing) and to automate the transmission design process. These goals are achieved through an integrated system made up of complementary expert system modules, databases and classical simulation techniques. The expert system modules are particularly appropriate to capture basic design knowledge since design is mainly conceptual, creative and non-algorithmic. A hybrid expert system using object structures and rules was developed for this purpose.;The originality of TIDE lies in the fact that the main power network design tasks and their associated analysis tools are integrated into one design environment. Thus, the conflicting design criteria of overvoltage, steady-state voltage control, stability and reliability are not considered independently but in a holistic approach which examines a number of possible design tradeoffs. These include AC versus DC transmission, system voltage versus number of lines or compensation levels, series versus shunt compensation and reliability versus cost. The intelligent system considers and analyzes a wide spectrum of potential designs. Out of these, a reduced set of feasible designs along with their costs and performance characteristics are presented automatically to the planner who can subsequently perform sensitivity analyses on system flexibility, stability criteria, reliability levels, component cost and number of spares. TIDE was validated by comparing its results with a number of actual systems. |
