A Life Cycle Cost study on the impact of the energy transition on the choice of voltage levels in the distribution grid

This paper describes a methodology and results of a case study comparing the Life Cycle Costs (LCC) of four different operation voltage scenarios of a DSO, where large load increases are to be expected due to the Energy Transition in a period of 40 years. The methodology includes quantifying the conversion costs to another network structure, which makes the comparison much less straight-forward than a greenfield approach. Next to these costs, the investments for capacity extensions, maintenance of network components and costs related to Customer Minutes Lost are quantified. The result is a model for estimating the development costs as a function of load growth.