Iterative scenario based reduction technique for stochastic optimization using conditional value-at-risk Articles uri icon

publication date

  • June 2014

start page

  • 355

end page

  • 380

issue

  • 2

volume

  • 15

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1389-4420

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1573-2924

abstract

  • In the last decades, several tools for managing risks in competitive markets, such as the conditional value-at-risk, have been developed. These techniques are applied in stochastic programming models primarily based on scenarios and/or finite sampling, which in case of large-scale models increase considerably their size according to the number of scenarios, sometimes resulting in intractable problems. This shortcoming is solved in the literature using (i) scenario reduction methods, and/or (ii) speeding up optimization techniques. However, when reducing the number of scenarios, part of the stochastic information is lost. In this paper, an iterative scheme is proposed to get the solution of a stochastic problem representing the stochastic processes via a set of scenarios and/or finite sampling, and modeling risk via conditional value-at-risk. This iterative approach relies on the fact that the solution of a stochastic programming problem optimizing the conditional value-at risk only depends on the scenarios on the upper tail of the loss distribution. Thus, the solution of the stochastic problem is obtained by solving, within an iterative scheme, problems with a reduced number of scenarios (subproblems). This strategy results in an important reduction in the computational burden for large-scale problems, while keeping all the stochastic information embedded in the original set of scenarios. In addition, each subproblem can be solved using speeding-up optimization techniques. The proposed method is very easy to implement and, as numerical results show, the reduction in computing time can be dramatic, and more pronounced as the number of initial scenarios or samples increases.

subjects

  • Statistics

keywords

  • conditional value-at-risk; decision making; risk management; scenario reduction; stochastic programming