A Hierarchical Backtracking Search Algorithm with Heuristic Pruning for Transmission Maintenance

A transmission maintenance scheduling optimization model considering the economy and N-1 contingencies is proposed in this paper. The objectives are to complete maintenance tasks timely and minimize grid operation costs while satisfying N-1 security and other constraints. To achieve this goal, Benders decomposition is employed, and the original problem is transformed into a tree-like optimal path search model. A hierarchical backtracking search algorithm incorporating two heuristic pruning techniques is then proposed, with 1) a heuristic objective evaluated by the degree of the distribution uniformity for maintenance tasks being added to prune infeasible plans, and 2) a quality estimation method by constraint relaxation being adopted to prune poor quality plans. The test cases show the solution quality from the proposed model and algorithm is improved by nearly 50%, and the solution time is reduced by nearly an order of magnitude compared with other models and algorithms.