Implication of National Policy on Electricity Distribution Planning : Electricity distribution system planning and design

This research project proposes a Multiple-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method of electricity distribution system planning based on the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) to investigate the implication of National Policy (Kenya Vision 2030) on electricity distribution system planning in Kenya. This approach differs from the traditional optimization approach that typically assesses alternative planning solutions by finding solutions with minimum total cost. Instead a separate capital cost is calculated for each solution, this ensures that the technical benefit of each solution is not obscured by the associated solution capital cost. By comparing the cost of each solution with the capital investment budget a most desirable solution can be determined. The key benefit of this approach is the ability to make strategic planning decision relating to the whole distribution network and also individual planning problems, this gives an overall microscopic view of all the network problems and the planned projects within the planning horizon period, which makes it easy to prioritize projects accordingly.