Load forecasting is the prediction of demand for the future period and is an essential requirementrnfor planning and expansion of power systems. In this thesis, load forecast for Addis AbabarnRegion Transmission System is obtained for the period of 2018 to 2022 and transmission systemrnexpansion planning is carried out to meet the forecasted load. Load forecasting is carried outrnusing MS Excel software and following the general stochastic regression techniques. Twornindependent variables, namely - GDP and number of customers are considered as the main factorsrnaffecting the future load growth. Load forecasting is carried out using MS Excel software andrnfollowing the general stochastic regression techniques. The load forecast for the year 2018 isrn991.91MW, that for the year is 2019 is 1063.00MW, the same for the year 2020 is 1169.42MW,rnwhile the same for the years 2021 and 2022 is found to be 1206.13MW 1269.83MW,rnrespectively.rnNetwork modeling using ETAP software is done for expansion planning and simulation studies.rnAll the necessary data are collected and power system network elements has been modeled usingrnthe software. The model includes the overall power system equipment of Addis Ababa area withrntheir arrangement for analysis and simulation purpose. Simulation studies including Load flowrnanalysis, short circuit analysis and transient stability analysis have been carried out using thernETAP software for the existing system and the proposed expanded system.rnFrom the simulation results, it is found that 9 out of 35 transmission lines are overloaded, 42 outrnof 71 transformers are overloaded, while 16 out of 31 buses face under voltage problems whilernmeeting the future load demands. It is further observed that that maximum transmission linernoverloading happens in the year 2022 on Minilik â€“ Gefersa 132kV transmission line andrnmaximum transformer overloading occurs for the load during 2022 on Sebeta I TR3. It is alsornfound that the Addis south II bus is 86.4% below the nominal voltage range.rnSimulation studies have been further carried out to test the performance of the expanded AddisrnAbaba Region Transmission System and compare the results with the existing transmissionrnsystem to meet the future loads for the period 2018-2022. From the simulation results, it isrnobserved that for the proposed expanded transmission system, the transmission lines overloadingrnimproves from 152.23% to 63.6% and transformer overloading improves from 335.14% to 82.8%.rnAlso, with the proposed capacitor placement, the bus voltage improves to 97.13% while meetingrnthe future loads.rnTherefore, it is recommended that EEP may go for implementation of the proposed expansionrnplan.