Strategic decision-making support for distribution system planning with flexibility alternatives

The ongoing power system transformation requires rethinking the planning and operation practices of the different segments to accommodate the necessary changes and take advantage of the forthcoming opportunities. This paper concerns novel approaches for appraising initiatives involving the use of flexibility from grid-connected users. This paper proposes a Decision Theory based Multi-Criteria Cost-Benefit Analysis (DT-MCA-CBA) methodology for smart grid initiatives that capture the complexity of the distribution system planning activities in which flexibility competes with grid expansion. Based on international guidelines, the proposed DT-MCA-CBA methodology systematically assesses tangible and intangible impacts, considering multiple conflicting criteria. The DT-MCA-CBA methodology relies on a novel approach that combines MCA and Decision Theory to identify the most valuable option in a complex decision-making problem by modelling the stakeholder perspective with the MiniMax regret decision rule. The proposed DT-MCA-CBA methodology is applied to a comparative case study concerning four different approaches for distribution system planning. A web-based software which implements the proposed decision-making framework and the DT-MCA-CBA methodology is developed to provide a novel decision-making support tool for strategical smart distribution system planning.