Multi-Objective Constrained Optimization for Energy Applications via Tree Ensembles
It addresses optimization challenges in energy systems, such as balancing economic and environmental goals under constraints, offering an incremental improvement for real-world applications with limited evaluation budgets.
The paper tackles constrained multi-objective optimization in energy systems with complex, black-box dynamics and heterogeneous variables, proposing a tree ensemble method that demonstrates competitive performance and sampling efficiency in benchmarks and applications.
Energy systems optimization problems are complex due to strongly non-linear system behavior and multiple competing objectives, e.g. economic gain vs. environmental impact. Moreover, a large number of input variables and different variable types, e.g. continuous and categorical, are challenges commonly present in real-world applications. In some cases, proposed optimal solutions need to obey explicit input constraints related to physical properties or safety-critical operating conditions. This paper proposes a novel data-driven strategy using tree ensembles for constrained multi-objective optimization of black-box problems with heterogeneous variable spaces for which underlying system dynamics are either too complex to model or unknown. In an extensive case study comprised of synthetic benchmarks and relevant energy applications we demonstrate the competitive performance and sampling efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to other state-of-the-art tools, making it a useful all-in-one solution for real-world applications with limited evaluation budgets.