2020 PES GM 8/4 Panel Session: Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow: A Review of ARPA-e''s First Grid Optimization Competition

In November 2018 ARPA-e launched the inaugural Grid Optimization Competition, a year-long algorithm competition to solve security-constrained optimal power flow (SCOPF), a foundational nonconvex nonlinear network optimization problem that is solved in real-time operations by utilities and ISOs. Throughout 2019 APRA-e challenged the competition participants to build novel high performance SCOPF algorithms that can provide minimum cost operating solutions while maintaining grid reliability. APRA-e provided four million dollars in prize money to motivate the participants to develop breakthrough algorithms drawing significant participation from academics, national laboratories and industry. The competition algorithms where deployed and evaluated by competition operators, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where extensive HPC resources were leverage to test the algorithms on networks with over ten-thousand buses, thousands of contingencies and hundreds of operation conditions. This panel session will provide a review of the ARPA-e grid optimization competition from both the organizers and participants. The discussion will cover unexpected challenges, lessons learned and key algorithmic insights from top performing participants.