In a free public seminar at 3:30 PM on October 23, in room 1115 of the Wisconsin Energy Institute, UW–Madison professor of computer science Michael Ferris will give a talk on optimization and equilibrium in energy economics.
Electricity markets have evolved over the past three decades to facilitate the optimal allocation and scheduling of resources in the power grid. The recent explosion of use of renewable supply such as wind, solar and hydro has led to increased volatility in this system. We investigate models of competition and risk within the context of power system markets. We demonstrate when social optima exist, what properties on risk measures and contracts are needed, and how to solve these problems in large scale practical settings. We look at specific structures that give rise to significant enhancements in computational performance. We position these models within a general setting of Nash Games that include linking equilibrium constraints and situations where players solve multi-period stochastic programs.