“…), to obtain reliability indices and an optimal system design in terms of construction costs, outage costs, and dispatch costs [8, 9]. Numerous methods and techniques have been applied for addressing this problem [10], of which mixed integer programming models and especially mixed integer linear programming (MILP) are the ones most commonly employed [11, 12]. However, due to the limitations associated with a linear model, an MILP formulation cannot provide a fully accurate representation of the complexity inherent in an AC line flow.…”