Optimal Rotational Load Shedding via Bilinear Integer Programming

TL;DR

This paper presents a bilinear integer programming approach to optimize rotational load shedding schedules in power networks, effectively balancing costs and preferences across zones.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bilinear integer programming formulation with a relaxation and recovery method for efficient load shedding optimization.

Findings

Outperforms existing load shedding schemes in simulations

Provides high-quality suboptimal solutions efficiently

Captures heterogeneous zone preferences through damage costs

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of managing rotational load shedding schedules for a power distribution network with multiple load zones. An integer optimization problem is formulated to find the optimal number and duration of planned power outages. Various types of damage costs are proposed to capture the heterogeneous load shedding preferences of different zones. The McCormick relaxation along with an effective procedure feasibility recovery is developed to solve the resulting bilinear integer program, which yields a high-quality suboptimal solution. Extensive simulation results corroborate the merit of the proposed approach, which has a substantial edge over existing load shedding schemes.