Jean-Paul Watson

Decomposing Optimization-Based Bounds Tightening Problems Via Graph Partitioning

  • Michael Lee Bynum
  • Anya Castillo
  • Bernard Knueven
  • Carl D. Laird
  • Jean-Paul Watson
  • John D. Siirola
    • Categories Global Optimization

    Bounds tightening or domain reduction is a critical refinement technique used in global optimization algorithms for nonlinear and mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. Bounds tightening can strengthen convex relaxations and reduce the size of branch and bounds trees. An effective but computationally intensive bounds tightening technique is optimization-based bounds tightening (OBBT). In OBBT, each variable is … Read more

    A Parallel Hub-and-Spoke System for Large-Scale Scenario-Based Optimization Under Uncertainty

  • Bernard Knueven
  • Christopher Muir
  • Jean-Paul Watson
  • David T. Mildebrath
  • John D. Siirola
  • David L. Woodruff
    • Categories Stochastic Programming Tags , , ,

    Efficient solution of stochastic programming problems generally requires the use of parallel computing resources. Here, we describe the open source package mpi-sppy, in which efficient and scalable parallelization is a central feature. We describe the overall architecture and provide computational examples and results showing scalability to the largest instances that we know of for the … Read more

    A K-Nearest Neighbor Heuristic for Real-Time DC Optimal Transmission Switching

  • Shabbir Ahmed
  • Santanu S. Dey
  • Jean-Paul Watson
  • Emma S. Johnson
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences Tags , , ,

    While transmission switching is known to reduce power generation costs, the difficulty of solving even DC optimal transmission switching (DCOTS) has prevented optimal transmission switching from becoming commonplace in real-time power systems operation. In this paper, we present a k-nearest neighbors (KNN) heuristic for DCOTS which relies on the insight that, for routine operations on … Read more

    A Computationally Efficient Algorithm for Computing Convex Hull Prices

  • Anya Castillo
  • Bernard Knueven
  • James Ostrowski
  • Jean-Paul Watson
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences Tags , , , ,

    Electricity markets worldwide allow participants to bid non-convex production offers. While non-convex offers can more accurately reflect a resource’s capabilities, they create challenges for market clearing processes. For example, system operators may be required to execute side payments to participants whose costs are not covered through energy sales as determined via traditional locational marginal pricing … Read more

    Projective Hedging for Stochastic Programming

  • Jonathan Eckstein
  • Jean-Paul Watson
  • David L. Woodruff
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Stochastic Programming Tags , , ,

    We propose a decomposition algorithm for multistage stochastic programming that resembles the progressive hedging method of Rockafellar and Wets, but is provably capable of several forms of asynchronous operation. We derive the method from a class of projective operator splitting methods fairly recently proposed by Combettes and Eckstein, significantly expanding the known applications of those … Read more

    Tightening McCormick Relaxations Toward Global Solution of the ACOPF Problem

  • Michael Lee Bynum
  • Anya Castillo
  • Carl D. Laird
  • Jean-Paul Watson
    • Categories Global Optimization Applications Tags , ,

    We show that a strong upper bound on the objective of the alternating current optimal power flow (ACOPF) problem can significantly improve the effectiveness of optimization-based bounds tightening (OBBT) on a number of relaxations. We additionally compare the performance of relaxations of the ACOPF problem, including the rectangular form without reference bus constraints, the rectangular … Read more

    Exploiting Identical Generators in Unit Commitment

  • Bernard Knueven
  • James Ostrowski
  • Jean-Paul Watson
    • Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Scheduling Tags , ,

    We present sufficient conditions under which thermal generators can be aggregated in mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulations of the unit commitment (UC) problem, while maintaining feasibility and optimality for the original disaggregated problem. Aggregating thermal generators with identical characteristics (e.g., minimum/maximum power output, minimum up/down-time, and cost curves) into a single unit reduces redundancy in … Read more

    A Novel Matching Formulation for Startup Costs in Unit Commitment

  • Bernard Knueven
  • James Ostrowski
  • Jean-Paul Watson
    • Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Scheduling Tags , ,

    We present a novel formulation for startup cost computation in the unit commitment problem (UC). Both the proposed formulation and existing formulations in the literature are placed in a formal, theoretical dominance hierarchy based on their respective linear programming relaxations. The proposed formulation is tested empirically against existing formulations on large-scale unit commitment instances drawn … Read more

    Global Solution Strategies for the Network-Constrained Unit Commitment Problem With AC Transmission Constraints

  • Anya Castillo
  • Carl D. Laird
  • Jean-Paul Watson
  • Jianfeng Liu
    • Categories Global Optimization, Integer Programming, Nonlinear Optimization Tags , ,

    We propose a novel global solution algorithm for the network-constrained unit commitment problem that incorporates a nonlinear alternating current model of the transmission network, which is a nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. Our algorithm is based on the multi-tree global optimization methodology, which iterates between a mixed-integer lower-bounding problem and a nonlinear upper-bounding problem. … Read more