Abstract: Power grids worldwide are operated and planned by extensively leveraging mathematical optimization models and methods, including linear and mixed-integer programming. The emphasis to date has been predominantly on reliability (keeping the lights on) at low cost under typical operating conditions. An ever-increasing challenge over the past decade targets power grid resilience - keeping the lights on under low-frequency-but-impactful events, e.g., caused by our adversaries and/or climate change. Power grid resilience can also be addressed through mathematical optimization, but the computational challenges are significant and scalable solution methods are only emerging. This talk will highlight some key mathematical optimization problems in power grid resilience: (1) adversarial bi-level and tri-level models for identifying and hardening critical components in a power grid and (2) capacity expansion under projected climate change impacts. For each area, I will present an overview of the problem, discuss key challenges in practically scaling mathematical optimization to address the problem, and detail some computational solver strategies and software (including stochastic programming and decomposition). The talk will conclude with a discussion of key challenges associated with deploying these advanced computational strategies in real-world decision contexts.
Biography: Dr. Jean-Paul Watson ("JP") is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in Livermore California. At LLNL, he is the Associate Program Lead for Climate-Infrastructure Resilience in the Global Security Directorate. JP leads a diverse team of researchers focused on developing advanced analytics for critical infrastructure operations, planning, and resilience – emphasizing decision-making under uncertainty. He is co-inventor of the widely used Pyomo algebraic modeling language for mathematical optimization (www.pyomo.org), and has co-authored over 75 journal articles, 30 conference papers, and 3 books. JP has received the R&D 100 award, the INFORMS Computing Society Prize, and was an INFORMS Edelman finalist.
