谢睿 XIE, Rui – Research

Distributionally Robust Planning of Low-Carbon Power Systems

The transition to low-carbon power systems is challenged by the spatial mismatch between renewable resources and load centers, as well as the inherent volatility of wind and solar generation. This research stream addresses the need for coordinated infrastructure planning, specifically the joint sizing and siting of renewable generation, energy storage systems (ESS), and transmission lines. A core methodological innovation in this work is the departure from traditional stochastic programming, which assumes perfect knowledge of probability distributions. Instead, this research employs distributionally robust optimization (DRO) to construct ambiguity sets that capture the inexactness of empirical data. By reformulating problems into tractable programs, these works balance investment costs against operational risks, such as renewable curtailment and load shedding. The frameworks extend to address physical realities like the wake effect in wind farms and policy constraints such as carbon taxes, providing a robust roadmap for designing reliable, zero-carbon energy systems.

Featured publications:

1. Sizing Grid-Connected Wind Power Generation and Energy Storage with Wake Effect and Endogenous Uncertainty: A Distributionally Robust Method
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei, Yue Chen
   CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems, accepted
   

2. Distributionally Robust Optimization and its Applications in Power System Energy Storage Sizing
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei
   Springer Singapore, 2024, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-97-2566-3
   

3. Sizing capacities of renewable generation, transmission, and energy storage for low-carbon power systems: A distributionally robust optimization approach
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei, Mingxuan Li, ZhaoYang Dong, Shengwei Mei
   Energy, 2023, DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125653
   

4. Sizing Renewable Generation and Energy Storage in Stand-Alone Microgrids Considering Distributionally Robust Shortfall Risk
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei, Mohammad Shahidehpour, Qiuwei Wu, Shengwei Mei
   IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2022, DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2022.3142006
   

5. Planning Fully Renewable Powered Charging Stations on Highways: A Data-Driven Robust Optimization Approach
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei, Mohammad E. Khodayar, Jianhui Wang, Shengwei Mei
   IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 2018, DOI: 10.1109/TTE.2018.2849222
   

Real-Time Operation, Market Mechanisms & Distributed Flexibility

As distributed energy resources (DERs) proliferate, the operational paradigm must shift to real-time coordination. This research category focuses on the management of diverse assets, including microgrids, electric vehicle (EV) fleets, data centers, and pulsed loads on all-electric ships. A key focus is the development of online algorithms and market mechanisms that incentivize participation while adhering to physical constraints. For instance, novel frameworks for real-time energy sharing among prosumers are modeled as generalized Nash games, ensuring fair equilibrium. By employing techniques such as Lyapunov optimization and Fourier series approximations, these strategies enable sub-second decision-making for high-power applications, ensuring systems remain stable, cost-effective, and low-carbon in real-time environments.

Featured publications:

1. Robust Microgrid Dispatch with Real-Time Energy Sharing and Endogenous Uncertainty
   Meng Yang, Rui Xie, Yongjun Zhang, Yue Chen
   IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 2025, DOI: 10.1109/TSG.2025.3569095
   

2. Real-Time Bidding Strategy of Energy Storage in an Energy Market with Carbon Emission Allocation Based on Aumann-Shapley Prices
   Rui Xie, Yue Chen
   IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/TEMPR.2024.3378213
   

3. Online Low-Carbon Workload, Energy, and Temperature Management of Distributed Data Centers
   Rui Xie, Yue Chen, Xi Weng
   The 4th Energy Conversion and Economics Annual Forum (ECE Forum 2024), DOI: 10.1049/icp.2025.0507
   

4. Online Periodic Coordination of Multiple Pulsed Loads on All-Electric Ships
   Rui Xie, Ying Chen, Zhaojian Wang, Shengwei Mei, Fan Li
   IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2020, DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2019.2961147
   

5. Optimal Service Pricing and Charging Scheduling of an Electric Vehicle Sharing System
   Rui Xie, Wei Wei, Qiuwei Wu, Tao Ding, Shengwei Mei
   IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2020, DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2019.2950402
   

New Robust Optimization Paradigm: Decision-Dependent Uncertainty & Integrated Prediction-Optimization

In modern power system operations, the separation between forecasting and decision-making often leads to suboptimal dispatch strategies. This research category bridges that gap by investigating decision-dependent uncertainty (DDU), where the operator's decisions, such as purchasing distributed forecasts or setting unit commitments, endogenously alter the underlying uncertainty sets. Moving beyond the traditional predict-then-optimize paradigm, this work introduces predict-and-optimize frameworks that integrate forecasting models directly into the optimization loop. This approach allows for the valuation of information, where the system operator can strategically purchase local predictions from agents to shrink uncertainty sets and reduce conservatism. By establishing theoretical guarantees for convergence and optimality, these models offer a closed-loop solution for economic dispatch and unit commitment that is statistically robust and operationally efficient.

Featured publications:

1. Predict-and-optimize robust unit commitment with statistical guarantees via weight combination
   Rui Xie, Yue Chen, Pierre Pinson
   IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2025, early access, DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2025.3613360
   

2. A Weighted Predict-and-Optimize Framework for Power System Operation Considering Varying Impacts of Uncertainty
   Yingrui Zhuang, Lin Cheng, Can Wan, Rui Xie, Ning Qi, Yue Chen
   IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2025, early access, DOI: 10.1109/TPWRS.2025.3639304
   

3. Robust Generation Dispatch With Purchase of Renewable Power and Load Predictions
   Rui Xie, Pierre Pinson, Yin Xu, Yue Chen
   IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, 2024, DOI: 10.1109/TSTE.2024.3353779
   

4. Valuation of distributed predictive information in robust economic dispatch
   Rui Xie, Tao Tan, Yue Chen
   HKIE Transactions, 2024, DOI: 10.33430/V31N2ICEE23-JY036
   

5. A robust optimization method for power systems with decision-dependent uncertainty
   Tao Tan, Rui Xie, Xiaoyuan Xu, Yue Chen
   Energy Conversion and Economics, 2024, DOI: 10.1049/enc2.12117