Planning of fuel coal imports using a mixed integer programming method

In the public utility and commercial fuel industries, commodities from multiple supply sources are sometimes blended before use to reduce costs and assure quality. A typical example of these commodities is the fuel coal used in coal fired power plants. The diversity of the supply sources for these plants makes the planning and scheduling of fuel coal logistics difficult, especially for a power company that has more than one power plant. This study proposes a mixed integer programming model that provides planning and scheduling of coal imports from multiple suppliers for the Taiwan Power Company. The objective is to minimize total inventory cost by minimizing procurement cost, transportation cost and holding cost. Constraints on the system include company procurement policy, power plant demand, harbor unloading capacity, inventory balance equations, blending requirement, and safety stock. An example problem is presented using the central coal logistics system of the Taiwan Power Company to demonstrate the validity of the proposed model.