Nested Bilevel Optimization for DERA Operation Strategy: A Stochastic Multiobjective IGDT Model With Hybrid Endogenous/Exogenous Scenarios

An aggregation of distributed energy resources (DERs) can bring economic and technical benefits for the DER owners and system operator. However, the operation of DERs encounters various uncertainties, which can seriously impact the benefits of DER aggregation. This article presents a new operation optimization approach for an aggregator of DERs considering the unavailability of DERs (as discrete uncertainty sources) as well as forecast uncertainties of electricity prices, solar powers, and wind powers (as continuous uncertainty sources). The proposed approach for DER aggregator (DERA) operation optimization comprises stochastic multiobjective information-gap decision theory (IGDT) to model these discrete and continuous uncertain variables. Moreover, a hybrid endogenous/exogenous scenario generation method is incorporated into the proposed approach to enhance the efficiency of the stochastic programming part by producing decision-dependent scenario trees. The proposed approach is formulated as a nested bilevel optimization model. The proposed approach is compared with other DERA operation optimization models using an out-of-sample analysis method. The comparative results illustrate the superiority of the proposed stochastic multiobjective IGDT approach over various deterministic, stochastic, and IGDT methods. In addition, the high tractability of the proposed solution method is illustrated, while its linearization error for the stochastic multiobjective IGDT problem is well below 1%.