Title: Simulation and discretization-free method for designing storage systems

Report Abstract:
In the last twenty years, the Fletcher-Ponnambalam (FP) method for explicit stochastic optimization of storage systems has been applied successfully to different studies, including multireservoir operation optimization. The FP method requires neither discretization of state variables nor Monte Carlo simulations to find optimal solutions for stochastic problems, and simulation is used only for validation purposes. Apart from statistical second moments of storage, expressions derived for first and second moments of both deficit and spill terms are incorporated into the new formulation enabling it to reach improved objective function values. The enhanced procedure is applied to solve a water reservoir operation optimization problem for a major dam in Brazil, and the optimal policies derived are simulated over a long time for validation and comparison purposes. The results show that the new developments provide a much better match between optimization and simulation with respect to objective function values, moments of monthly storages, deficits and surpluses as well as probabilities of containment, deficit and spill.

Speaker: Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam

Date/Time: 10:00 – 11:30AM, June 18, 2019

Location: Room 706, College of Economics and Management Building, Jiangjun Rd. Campus

Speaker Biography:
Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam is a Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He has previously worked at several academic institutions including the College of Engineering in Madras, India; the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa and the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. In the past, Professor Ponnambalam has been a Research Assistant Professor and the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies in the Systems Design Engineering department at UWaterloo. His research interests include design optimization under uncertainty, mainly pertaining to issues in civil, chemical, electrical and environmental engineering. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the many applications, much of the work has been done in collaboration with colleagues from both inside and outside the university. In addition, Professor Ponnambalam is also working in the application of intelligent systems to hydrology and water resources, health decision making, control of satellite communications, and fault detection analysis.