| Article ID: | iaor20091177 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Volume: | 159 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page Number: | 433 |
| End Page Number: | 450 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2008 |
| Journal: | Annals of Operations Research |
| Authors: | Maier Holger R., Simpson Angus R., Foong Wai Kuan, Stolp Stephen |
| Keywords: | scheduling, maintenance, repair & replacement, heuristics: ant systems |
A number of algorithms have been developed for the optimization of power plant maintenance schedules. However, the true test of such algorithms occurs when they are applied to real systems. In this paper, the application of an Ant Colony Optimization formulation to a hydropower system is presented. The formulation is found to be effective in handling various constraints commonly encountered in practice. Overall, the results obtained using the ACO formulation are better than those given by traditional methods using engineering judgment, which indicates the potential of ACO in solving realistic power plant maintenance scheduling problems.