Optimal subsidy design for shore power usage in ship berthing operations
针对政府运营港口，研究如何设计最优补贴以鼓励船舶靠港时使用清洁能源，通过随机优化模型平衡环境效益与补贴成本，并用数值实验验证模型。
Abstract Maritime transportation is the backbone of international trade but ships emit a large amount of air pollutants at ports. To encourage ships to use clean energy while berthing at port, subsidies are provided to ship operators that use clean energy and the subsidy amount is generally determined based on subjective judgment. We, therefore, examine the optimal subsidy design for government‐operated ports, aiming at balancing the environmental benefits and subsidy expenses. Considering the uncertainty of energy requirements by ships, we build a stochastic optimization model. Taking advantage of the problem structure, we convert the model into a deterministic one by applying sample average approximation and a binomial distribution. The model is then linearized and solved by CPLEX. A series of numerical experiments with realistic parameters are conducted to validate the model and useful managerial insights are obtained.