Title
Scenario generation for stochastic optimization problems via the sparse grid method
Abstract
We study the use of sparse grids in the scenario generation (or discretization) problem in stochastic programming problems where the uncertainty is modeled using a continuous multivariate distribution. We show that, under a regularity assumption on the random function involved, the sequence of optimal objective function values of the sparse grid approximations converges to the true optimal objective function values as the number of scenarios increases. The rate of convergence is also established. We treat separately the special case when the underlying distribution is an affine transform of a product of univariate distributions, and show how the sparse grid method can be adapted to the distribution by the use of quadrature formulas tailored to the distribution. We numerically compare the performance of the sparse grid method using different quadrature rules with classic quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods, optimal rank-one lattice rules, and Monte Carlo (MC) scenario generation, using a series of utility maximization problems with up to 160 random variables. The results show that the sparse grid method is very efficient, especially if the integrand is sufficiently smooth. In such problems the sparse grid scenario generation method is found to need several orders of magnitude fewer scenarios than MC and QMC scenario generation to achieve the same accuracy. It is indicated that the method scales well with the dimension of the distribution--especially when the underlying distribution is an affine transform of a product of univariate distributions, in which case the method appears scalable to thousands of random variables.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1007/s10589-015-9751-7
Comp. Opt. and Appl.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Scenario generation,Stochastic optimization,Discretization,Sparse grid
Mathematical optimization,Stochastic optimization,Random variable,Sparse approximation,Multivariate normal distribution,Rate of convergence,Stochastic programming,Sparse grid,Mathematics,Random function
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
62
3
0926-6003
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
15
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Michael Chen120.72
Sanjay Mehrotra252177.18
Dávid Papp3539.21