Trilevel Optimization in Power Network Defense

• Published in: IEEE transactions on systems, man and cybernetics. Part C, Applications and reviews Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 712 - 718
• Main Authors: Yiming Yao, Edmunds, T., Papageorgiou, D., Alvarez, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New-York, NY IEEE 01.07.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Asset management; Cost engineering; Costs; Cybernetics; Economics; Exact sciences and technology; General aspects; Homeland security; interdiction; Laboratories; Mathematical models; multilevel optimization; Natural gas; network defense; Networks; Optimization; Power generation economics; Resource allocation; Resource management; Surveillance; Switches; Terrorism; Terrorist attacks; Testing; Economics; multilevel optimization; network defense; interdiction; Terrorism; Resource allocation; Network management; Modeling; Optimization; homeland security; Electrical network; Electric power; Optimal solution; Resource constraint; Problem solving
• ISSN: 1094-6977
• DOI: 10.1109/TSMCC.2007.897487

We present a trilevel optimization model of resource allocation in electric power network defense. This model identifies the most critical network components to defend against possible terrorist attacks. The goal of defense is to minimize the economic cost that the attacks may cause, subject to resource constraints. We describe a decomposition approach for finding an optimal solution to the trilevel model, which is based on iteratively solving smaller nested bilevel problems. Our testing results demonstrate the advantages of trilevel optimization over bilevel optimization in network defense.