IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6746-d828896.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Human Factor in Transmission Network Expansion Planning: The Grid That a Sustainable Energy System Needs

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Lumbreras

    (Institute for Research in Technology, ICAI School of Engineering, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Santa Cruz de Marcenado 26, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Jesús David Gómez

    (Institute for Research in Technology, ICAI School of Engineering, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Santa Cruz de Marcenado 26, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Erik Francisco Alvarez

    (Institute for Research in Technology, ICAI School of Engineering, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Santa Cruz de Marcenado 26, 28015 Madrid, Spain)

  • Sebastien Huclin

    (Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Sede Building 1, 1st Floor, Scientific Campus, 48940 Leioa, Spain)

Abstract

The decarbonization of the energy sector puts additional pressure on the transmission network. The main cause for this is that renewable sources are often more abundant in geographical areas far away from the main demand centers, so new transmission lines are required to connect the new renewable energy capacity. In addition, by connecting different geographical zones, the transmission network could smooth the intermittency and the variability of renewable energy production. Thus, the changing energy landscape leads to a need to reinforce the transmission network through the Network Transmission Expansion Planning. Ideally, all the idiosyncrasies of the electricity system are considered in the operation and expansion planning process. However, several critical dimensions of the planning process are routinely ignored since they may introduce parameters that are difficult to quantify and complexity that state-of-the-art planning methods cannot handle. This paper identifies the most relevant elements related to the human factor, which have been grouped around the main topics: the human behind the technical, the human at the institutional level, and the human at the individual level. This paper also provides an additional formulation that can be used to upgrade existing models to include the human element and discusses the implications of these upgrades.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Lumbreras & Jesús David Gómez & Erik Francisco Alvarez & Sebastien Huclin, 2022. "The Human Factor in Transmission Network Expansion Planning: The Grid That a Sustainable Energy System Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6746-:d:828896
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6746/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6746/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew W Thompson & Yannick Perez, 2019. "Vehicle-to-Anything (V2X) Energy Services, Value Streams, and Regulatory Policy Implications," Working Papers hal-02265826, HAL.
    2. Churkin, Andrey & Pozo, David & Bialek, Janusz & Korgin, Nikolay & Sauma, Enzo, 2019. "Can cross-border transmission expansion lead to fair and stable cooperation? Northeast Asia case analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. S. Lumbreras & D. W. Bunn & A. Ramos & M. Chronopoulos, 2016. "Real options valuation applied to transmission expansion planning," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 231-246, February.
    4. Banez-Chicharro, Fernando & Olmos, Luis & Ramos, Andres & Latorre, Jesus M., 2017. "Estimating the benefits of transmission expansion projects: An Aumann-Shapley approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 1044-1054.
    5. Wu, F.F & Zheng, F.L. & Wen, F.S., 2006. "Transmission investment and expansion planning in a restructured electricity market," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 954-966.
    6. Yue, Meiling & Lambert, Hugo & Pahon, Elodie & Roche, Robin & Jemei, Samir & Hissel, Daniel, 2021. "Hydrogen energy systems: A critical review of technologies, applications, trends and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Lund, Peter D. & Lindgren, Juuso & Mikkola, Jani & Salpakari, Jyri, 2015. "Review of energy system flexibility measures to enable high levels of variable renewable electricity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 785-807.
    8. Chao, Hung-po & Wilson, Robert, 2020. "Coordination of electricity transmission and generation investments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Pringles, Rolando & Olsina, Fernando & Garcés, Francisco, 2014. "Designing regulatory frameworks for merchant transmission investments by real options analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 272-280.
    10. Howells, Mark & Rogner, Holger & Strachan, Neil & Heaps, Charles & Huntington, Hillard & Kypreos, Socrates & Hughes, Alison & Silveira, Semida & DeCarolis, Joe & Bazillian, Morgan & Roehrl, Alexander, 2011. "OSeMOSYS: The Open Source Energy Modeling System: An introduction to its ethos, structure and development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5850-5870, October.
    11. Gan, Wei & Ai, Xiaomeng & Fang, Jiakun & Yan, Mingyu & Yao, Wei & Zuo, Wenping & Wen, Jinyu, 2019. "Security constrained co-planning of transmission expansion and energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 383-394.
    12. Banez-Chicharro, Fernando & Olmos, Luis & Ramos, Andres & Latorre, Jesus M., 2017. "Beneficiaries of transmission expansion projects of an expansion plan: An Aumann-Shapley approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 382-401.
    13. Guerra, Omar J. & Tejada, Diego A. & Reklaitis, Gintaras V., 2016. "An optimization framework for the integrated planning of generation and transmission expansion in interconnected power systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1-21.
    14. Moradi-Sepahvand, Mojtaba & Amraee, Turaj, 2021. "Integrated expansion planning of electric energy generation, transmission, and storage for handling high shares of wind and solar power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    15. Gonzalez-Romero, Isaac-Camilo & Wogrin, Sonja & Gomez, Tomas, 2021. "Transmission and storage expansion planning under imperfect market competition: Social planner versus merchant investor," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    16. Quiroga, Daniela & Sauma, Enzo & Pozo, David, 2019. "Power system expansion planning under global and local emission mitigation policies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 1250-1264.
    17. Bresesti, Paola & Calisti, Roberto & Cazzol, Maria Vittoria & Gatti, Antonio & Provenzano, Dario & Vaiani, Andrea & Vailati, Riccardo, 2009. "The benefits of transmission expansions in the competitive electricity markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 274-280.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Banez-Chicharro, Fernando & Olmos, Luis & Ramos, Andres & Latorre, Jesus M., 2017. "Beneficiaries of transmission expansion projects of an expansion plan: An Aumann-Shapley approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 382-401.
    2. Moradi-Sepahvand, Mojtaba & Amraee, Turaj, 2021. "Integrated expansion planning of electric energy generation, transmission, and storage for handling high shares of wind and solar power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    3. Xie, Rui & Wei, Wei & Li, Mingxuan & Dong, ZhaoYang & Mei, Shengwei, 2023. "Sizing capacities of renewable generation, transmission, and energy storage for low-carbon power systems: A distributionally robust optimization approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    4. Shu, Han & Mays, Jacob, 2025. "Transmission benefits and cost allocation under ambiguity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Kristiansen, Martin & Korpås, Magnus & Svendsen, Harald G., 2018. "A generic framework for power system flexibility analysis using cooperative game theory," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 223-232.
    6. Churkin, Andrey & Bialek, Janusz & Pozo, David & Sauma, Enzo & Korgin, Nikolay, 2021. "Review of Cooperative Game Theory applications in power system expansion planning," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    7. Guo, Hui & Xiao, Yunpeng & Pinson, Pierre & Wang, Xiuli & Zhang, Likai & Wang, Xifan, 2025. "A negotiation-based incentive mechanism for efficient Transmission Expansion Planning considering generation investment equilibrium in deregulated environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 386(C).
    8. Savelli, Iacopo & De Paola, Antonio & Li, Furong, 2020. "Ex-ante dynamic network tariffs for transmission cost recovery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    9. Yue, Xiufeng & Patankar, Neha & Decarolis, Joseph & Chiodi, Alessandro & Rogan, Fionn & Deane, J.P. & O’Gallachoir, Brian, 2020. "Least cost energy system pathways towards 100% renewable energy in Ireland by 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    10. Lopion, Peter & Markewitz, Peter & Robinius, Martin & Stolten, Detlef, 2018. "A review of current challenges and trends in energy systems modeling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 156-166.
    11. Domínguez, Ruth & Carrión, Miguel & Vitali, Sebastiano, 2024. "Investments in transmission lines and storage units considering second-order stochastic dominance constraints," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Zhang, Zhi & Chen, Yanbo & Ma, Tianyang & Tian, Haoxin & Liu, Jingyu & Zhou, Ming & Wang, Wei, 2025. "Multi-type energy storage expansion planning: A review for high-penetration renewable energy integration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    13. Radhanon Diewvilai & Kulyos Audomvongseree, 2021. "Generation Expansion Planning with Energy Storage Systems Considering Renewable Energy Generation Profiles and Full-Year Hourly Power Balance Constraints," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-25, September.
    14. Voswinkel, Simon & Höckner, Jonas & Khalid, Abuzar & Weber, Christoph, 2022. "Sharing congestion management costs among system operators using the Shapley value," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    15. Mei, Jie & Chen, Chen & Wang, Jianhui & Kirtley, James L., 2019. "Coalitional game theory based local power exchange algorithm for networked microgrids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 133-141.
    16. Xie, Shiwei & Hu, Zhijian & Zhou, Daming & Li, Yan & Kong, Shunfei & Lin, Weiwei & Zheng, Yunfei, 2018. "Multi-objective active distribution networks expansion planning by scenario-based stochastic programming considering uncertain and random weight of network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 207-225.
    17. Wu, Yunyun & Fang, Jiakun & Ai, Xiaomeng & Xue, Xizhen & Cui, Shichang & Chen, Xia & Wen, Jinyu, 2023. "Robust co-planning of AC/DC transmission network and energy storage considering uncertainty of renewable energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    18. Waite, Michael & Modi, Vijay, 2016. "Modeling wind power curtailment with increased capacity in a regional electricity grid supplying a dense urban demand," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 299-317.
    19. Chamorro, José M. & Abadie, Luis M. & de Neufville, Richard & Ilić, Marija, 2012. "Market-based valuation of transmission network expansion. A heuristic application in GB," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 302-320.
    20. de Moura, Gustavo Nikolaus Pinto & Legey, Luiz Fernando Loureiro & Howells, Mark, 2018. "A Brazilian perspective of power systems integration using OSeMOSYS SAMBA – South America Model Base – and the bargaining power of neighbouring countries: A cooperative games approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 470-485.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6746-:d:828896. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.