An Optimization Model for Production Costing in Electric Utilities
提出一种优化模型，通过引入二次生产成本和优化子模型，快速估算电力公用事业的年度生产成本，精度接近大型模拟模型但计算时间大幅减少。
Estimating the annual production cost is a crucial component in long range capacity planning for electric utilities. Traditional simulation-based methods are quite expensive in terms of computer resources (space and time), while simpler mathematical programming-based models generally assume a linear variable production cost. This paper presents a method that incorporates quadratic production costs for each unit and uses optimization submodels to develop a system production cost versus output curve. The method is tested using data from a large southeastern utility. Production cost estimates within one percent of the estimates from a large simulation model were obtained with a small fraction of the simulation model's computing time. The concluding section discusses how the new method might be incorporated in procedures for capacity planning.