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Ramirez-Pico, C., Ljubic, I., & Moreno, E. (2023). Benders Adaptive-Cuts Method for Two-Stage Stochastic Programs. Transp. Sci., Early Access.
Abstract: Benders decomposition is one of the most applied methods to solve two-stage stochastic problems (TSSP) with a large number of scenarios. The main idea behind the Benders decomposition is to solve a large problem by replacing the values of the second stage subproblems with individual variables and progressively forcing those variables to reach the optimal value of the subproblems, dynamically inserting additional valid constraints, known as Benders cuts. Most traditional implementations add a cut for each scenario (multicut) or a single cut that includes all scenarios. In this paper, we present a novel Benders adaptive-cuts method, where the Benders cuts are aggregated according to a partition of the scenarios, which is dynamically refined using the linear program-dual information of the subproblems. This scenario aggregation/disaggregation is based on the Generalized Adaptive Partitioning Method (GAPM), which has been successfully applied to TSSPs. We formalize this hybridization of Benders decomposition and the GAPM by providing sufficient conditions under which an optimal solution of the deterministic equivalent can be obtained in a finite number of iterations. Our new method can be interpreted as a compromise between the Benders single-cuts and multicuts methods, drawing on the advantages of both sides, by rendering the initial iterations faster (as for the single-cuts Benders) and ensuring the overall faster convergence (as for the multicuts Benders). Computational experiments on three TSSPs [the Stochastic Electricity Planning, Stochastic Multi Commodity Flow, and conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) Facility Location] validate these statements, showing that the new method outperforms the other implementations of Benders methods, as well as other standard methods for solving TSSPs, in particular when the number of scenarios is very large. Moreover, our study demonstrates that the method is not only effective for the risk-neutral decision makers, but also that it can be used in combination with the risk-averse CVaR objective.
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Ramirez-Pico, C., & Moreno, E. (2022). Generalized Adaptive Partition-based Method for Two-Stage Stochastic Linear Programs with Fixed Recourse. Math. Program., to appear.
Abstract: We present a method to solve two-stage stochastic linear programming problems with fixed recourse when the uncertainty space can have either discrete or continuous distributions. Given a partition of the uncertainty space, the method is addressed to solve a discrete problem with one scenario for each element of the partition (subregions of the uncertainty space). Fixing first-stage variables, we formulate a second-stage subproblem for each element, and exploiting information from the dual of these problems, we provide conditions that the partition must satisfy to obtain an optimal solution. These conditions provide guidance on how to refine the partition, iteratively approaching an optimal solution. The results from computational experiments show how the method automatically refines the partition of the uncertainty space in the regions of interest for the problem. Our algorithm is a generalization of the adaptive partition-based method presented by Song & Luedtke for discrete distributions, extending its applicability to more general cases.
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