Pumping Station for the Future: Re-design using multi-objective robust simulation optimization

Uncertainties about climate change and the energy market constitute a major challenge in designing a pumping station. To tackle this challenge, a robust design is needed, that performs satisfactory under a wide variety of future conditions. Multi-Objective Robust Simulation Optimization (MORSO) was applied, to create a robust re-design for pumping station Vissering in the Dutch Noordoostpolder. Combining the future scenarios and design alternatives led to a large set of simulations, that was analyzed using sensitivity analysis. The future scenarios caused the same order of magnitude sensitivity as the design choices. As such, this insight confirmed the importance of including uncertainties about the future in a pumping station design. By considering multiple performance objectives, instead of just a single cost objective, many trade-offs and interactions between design choices and future scenarios were revealed. Traditional design strategies and the other robustness frameworks would not have come to these insights. In the end MORSO enabled us to design a robust pumping station and create a starting point for an adaptive operational strategy.