TITLE:  Optimization and Equilibrium in Energy Economics

ABSTRACT:

We look at models of competition and risk within the context of power system markets.  We demonstrate when social optima exist, what properties on risk measures and contracts are needed, and how to solve these problems in large scale practical settings.  We look at specific structures that give rise to significant enhancements in computational performance.  We position these models within a general setting of Nash Games that include linking equilibrium constraints and situtations where players solve multi-period stochastic programs.

BIO: 

Michael C. Ferris is Professor of Computer Sciences and leads the Optimization Group within the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.  He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England in 1989.

Dr. Ferris' research is concerned with algorithmic and interface development for large scale problems in mathematical programming, including links to the GAMS and AMPL modeling languages, and general purpose software such as PATH, NLPEC and EMP.  He has worked on many applications of both optimization and complementarity, including cancer treatment planning, energy modeling, economic policy, traffic and environmental engineering, video-on-demand data delivery, structural and mechanical engineering.

Ferris is a SIAM fellow, an INFORMS fellow, received the Beale-Orchard-Hays prize from the Mathematical Programming Society and is a past recipient of a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  He serves on the editorial boards of Mathematical Programming, Transactions of Mathematical Software, and Optimization Methods and Software.