Optimization for Energy Systems

Details zur Veranstaltung

Level	Master
Language	English
Semester	Winter
ECTS (SWS)	3 (2)
Lecturer	Prof. Dr. Anke Weidlich
Lecture in HisInOne	Link

Content

This lecture equips you with the essential tools to tackle key challenges in the ongoing energy transition. You will learn to formulate and solve the most important optimization problems in power systems, such as Economic Dispatch and Unit Commitment. We will explore how market prices are determined (Locational Marginal Prices) and how to make complex decisions that balance technical, economic, and ecological goals using multi-criteria analysis. The course combines mathematical solution approaches with practical examples, and also introduces advanced methods like stochastic and heuristic optimization to handle real-world uncertainty.

Course outline

• Linear programming (LP)
  • Introduction and examples
  • Elements of an LP problem
  • Simplex algorithm
  • Dual form of the problem
  • Big M method
  • Energy system applications
• Mixed-integer linear programming
  • Introduction
  • Branch-and-bound
  • Integer problems and applications
  • Further solution approaches
• Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
  • MCDA overview
  • Multi-objective decision making
  • Multi-attribute decision making
• Stochastic optimization
• Further optimization approaches
  • Dynamic programming
  • Evolutionary algorithms
• Wrap-up, examples, discussion

Highlights

This lecture appeared in the Top 5 of all lectures in Sustainable Systems Engineering twice (see ranking website)

• #2 in winter semester 2022/23 (under the former name Optimization and Forecasting for Energy Systems)
• #2 in winter semester 2021/22 (under the former name Operations Research for Energy Systems)

We do practical calculation examples, primarily using MS Excel, so programming skills are not required.