When you need to move electricity from A to B, sometimes transmission bottlenecks force the use of expensive generators, increasing the cost to consumers. Paradoxically, switching some transmission lines out of service can relieve the need for the expensive generation. The problem is figuring out which transmission lines to switch in or out to optimize the network.

Juggling the different variables requires hours of computing, making it impractical for real-time adjustments. At least, that…