A decision support system for the electrical power districting problem

Many national electricity industries around the globe are being restructured from regulated monopolies to deregulated marketplaces with competitive business units. The business units responsible for transmission and distribution must be given physical property rights to certain parts of the power grid in order to provide reliable service and make effective business decisions. However, partitioning a physical power grid into economically viable districts (distribution companies) involves many considerations. We refer to this complex problem as the electrical power districting problem (EPDP). This research identifies the fundamental characteristics required to appropriately model and solve an EPDP. The proposed solution methodology is implemented as a decision support system (DSS) featuring a visualization tool that allows decision makers (DMs) to explore what we refer to as a "soft efficient frontier." This DSS was found to effectively support DMs at The World Bank in solving an EPDP in the context of a case study for the Republic of Ghana.

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