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This research develops heuristics for scheduling electric power production amid uncertainty. Reliability is becoming more difficult to manage due to growing uncertainty from renewable resources. This challenge is compounded by the risk of resource outages, which can occur any time and without warning. Stochastic optimization is a promising tool but

This research develops heuristics for scheduling electric power production amid uncertainty. Reliability is becoming more difficult to manage due to growing uncertainty from renewable resources. This challenge is compounded by the risk of resource outages, which can occur any time and without warning. Stochastic optimization is a promising tool but remains computationally intractable for large systems. The models used in industry instead schedule for the forecast and withhold generation reserve for scenario response, but they are blind to how this reserve may be constrained by network congestion. This dissertation investigates more effective heuristics to improve economics and reliability in power systems where congestion is a concern.

Two general approaches are developed. Both approximate the effects of recourse decisions without actually solving a stochastic model. The first approach procures more reserve whenever approximate recourse policies stress the transmission network. The second approach procures reserve at prime locations by generalizing the existing practice of reserve disqualification. The latter approach is applied for feasibility and is later extended to limit scenario costs. Testing demonstrates expected cost improvements around 0.5%-1.0% for the IEEE 73-bus test case, which can translate to millions of dollars per year even for modest systems. The heuristics developed in this dissertation perform somewhere between established deterministic and stochastic models: providing an economic benefit over current practices without substantially increasing computational times.
ContributorsLyon, Joshua Daniel (Author) / Zhang, Muhong (Thesis advisor) / Hedman, Kory W (Thesis advisor) / Askin, Ronald G. (Committee member) / Mirchandani, Pitu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Healthcare operations have enjoyed reduced costs, improved patient safety, and

innovation in healthcare policy over a huge variety of applications by tackling prob-

lems via the creation and optimization of descriptive mathematical models to guide

decision-making. Despite these accomplishments, models are stylized representations

of real-world applications, reliant on accurate estimations from historical data to

Healthcare operations have enjoyed reduced costs, improved patient safety, and

innovation in healthcare policy over a huge variety of applications by tackling prob-

lems via the creation and optimization of descriptive mathematical models to guide

decision-making. Despite these accomplishments, models are stylized representations

of real-world applications, reliant on accurate estimations from historical data to jus-

tify their underlying assumptions. To protect against unreliable estimations which

can adversely affect the decisions generated from applications dependent on fully-

realized models, techniques that are robust against misspecications are utilized while

still making use of incoming data for learning. Hence, new robust techniques are ap-

plied that (1) allow for the decision-maker to express a spectrum of pessimism against

model uncertainties while (2) still utilizing incoming data for learning. Two main ap-

plications are investigated with respect to these goals, the first being a percentile

optimization technique with respect to a multi-class queueing system for application

in hospital Emergency Departments. The second studies the use of robust forecasting

techniques in improving developing countries’ vaccine supply chains via (1) an inno-

vative outside of cold chain policy and (2) a district-managed approach to inventory

control. Both of these research application areas utilize data-driven approaches that

feature learning and pessimism-controlled robustness.
ContributorsBren, Austin (Author) / Saghafian, Soroush (Thesis advisor) / Mirchandani, Pitu (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Teresa (Committee member) / Pan, Rong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018