Accelerating Stochastic Energy System Optimization Models: Temporally Split Benders Decomposition

Abstract: Stochastic programming can be applied to consider uncertainties in energy system optimization models for capacity expansion planning. However, these models become increasingly large and time-consuming to solve, even without considering uncertainties. For two-stage stochastic capacity expansion planning problems, Benders decomposition is often applied to ensure that the problem remains solvable. Since stochastic scenarios can be optimized independently within subproblems, their optimization can be parallelized. However, hourly-resolved capacity expansion planning problems typically have a larger temporal than scenario cardinality. Therefore, we present a temporally split Benders decomposition that further exploits the parallelization potential of stochastic expansion planning problems. A compact reformulation of the storage level constraint into linking variables ensures that long-term storage operation can still be optimized despite the temporal decomposition. We demonstrate this novel approach with model instances of the German power system with up to 87 million rows and columns. Our results show a reduction in computing times of up to 60% and reduced memory requirements. Additional enhancement strategies and the use of distributed memory on high-performance computers further improve the computing time by over 80%.