Multi-stage stochastic electricity portfolio optimization in liberalized energy markets

In this paper we analyze the electricity portfolio problem of a big consumer in a multi-stage stochastic programming framework. Stochasticity enters the model via the uncertain spot price process and is represented by a scenario tree. The decision that has to be taken is how much energy should be bought in advance, and how large the exposition to the uncertain spot market, as well as the relatively expensive production with an own power plant should be. The risk is modeled using an Average Value-at-Risk (AVaR) term in the objective function. The results of the stochastic programming model are compared with classical fix mix strategies, which are outperformed. Furthermore, the influence of risk parameters is shown. © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.