ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a one-chapter summary of power delivery system planning and the methods and processes used, with a focus on how this planning is made to encompass and focus on aging infrastructure needs. Readers who want more detail than provided here about planning in general can consult Willis (2004). More detail on the methodology for planning of aging infrastructure will be presented in subsequent chapters and in case studies given there and in the Appendices. Power system planning involves identification of the best equipment to be added, and changes to be made, to the system. It produces specifications and authorization that identify the additions and changes, their locations, manner of interconnection to the system, and schedule of deployment. Traditionally, system planning was oriented around expansion planning. The utility’s customer base and load were growing. At some point in the future, the present system would prove inadequate to serve the growing electric demand. When would that be? What additions would need to be made so the system would continue to be adequate? That was the traditional power delivery planning paradigm. A consideration for aging equipment and infrastructures needs to be added. Equipment that has long been dependable is wearing out. Circuit configurations
and facility locations picked decades ago may not be best for today’s and the future’s needs. need to be added into the plan to best accommodate these considerations, and mixed with those additions needed to support growth, so that the overall plan is the best – whatever best means. Since cost is an important attribute in power planning, almost invariably one of the planner’s chief goals is to minimize overall cost of handling the growth and the aging.
