Optimal planning for power systems considering the interconnections between isolated regions

Climate change and global warming have made clear the need to change the way we generate and consume energy. To achieve this objective, a sustainable energy transition that encourages the use of renewable energy sources is needed. This study presents an optimization model, which allows the planning of a sustainable electricity system on a large scale, to replace some non-renewable power plants with renewables. The installation of new transmission lines is considered to avoid the oversizing of the new installed capacity, as well as the increase in the energy security of the isolated regions taking advantage of the temporary generation of renewable energies. The optimal solution is achieved by simultaneously minimizing the costs, greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption using a multi-stakeholder approach. To show the applicability of the proposed model, it is presented a case study of the Mexican electricity system. The results show that planning the expansion of generation and transmission capacities using the proposed model decreases water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45 percent considering an increase in energy demand, as a result of demographic and industrial growth. Graphical Abstract