【Title】Data Analytics and Optimization for Smarter Decision Makings in Electrical Grid

【Time】14:00-15:00𓀔，July 22, 2015(Wednesday)

【Venue】Room 510,Shunde Building

【Speaker】Dr. Weiwei Chen

【Host】Dr.Xiaolei Xie

【Abstract】Due to the increase of peak electricity demand and the aging facility, electric utility companies have to invest in system capacity, which is under-utilized most of the time. To reduce expensive infrastructure investment, demand response (DR) programs have become popular among utilities to improve capacity utilization. These programs typically offer financial incentives to customers to shave or shift their peak power usage. This talk focuses on using data analytics and optimization methods to make better business decisions in demand response. A critical issue in the implementation of DR programs is to accurately estimate the customers’ baseline power consumptions and the load reduction. A cohort based approach is introduced to improve the estimation accuracy utilizing customer historic meter data. Then, a methodology for optimizing the scheduling of DR events is presented. The method establishes a dynamic policy that triggers DR events based on probability distributions of exogenous information that is accessible to the utility a priori for decision making.

【Bio】Dr. Weiwei Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management & Marketing Sciences at Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick. He received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the M.S. and B.S. degree in Automation from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Prior to joining Rutgers Business School, he was a Scientist in Management Sciences Lab at GE Global Research, NY. His expertise includes large-scale optimization, simulation optimization, stochastic modeling and decision analysis. His domain experience encompasses supply chain management, logistics, smart grid, and healthcare.

All interested are welcome!