A new approach for DG planning at the viewpoint of the independent DG investor, a case study of Iran

摘要

Over the last decade, distributed generation units have been proposed to provide a part of the required energy of end‐use customers. In this paper, a comprehensive model is presented to perform the distributed generation expansion planning from the independent investor's viewpoint. The objective function is suggested based on the payback period and with considering the budget limit. The investment and operation costs are included in the problem. The investment cost consists of the costs of equipment, distribution line installation, upgrading of upstream substation, gas and water pipe installations, and land. The genetic algorithm is applied to determine the optimal technology, location, and size of the distributed generation units. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated via a realistic case study, and the effect of a bank loan is discussed in the numerical results. Finally, the impact of the investor's investment decisions on the power system is analyzed.