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A constraint programming-based approach to a large-scale energy management problem with varied constraints

A solution approach to the ROADEF/EURO Challenge 2010

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Abstract

This paper addresses a large-scale power plant maintenance scheduling and production planning problem, which has been proposed by the ROADEF/EURO Challenge 2010. We develop two lower bounds for the problem: a greedy heuristic and a flow network for which a minimum cost flow problem has to be solved.

Furthermore, we present a solution approach that combines a constraint programming formulation of the problem with several heuristics. The problem is decomposed into an outage scheduling and a production planning phase. The first phase is solved by a constraint program, which additionally ensures the feasibility of the remaining problem. In the second phase we utilize a greedy heuristic—developed from our greedy lower bound—to assign production levels and refueling amounts for a given outage schedule. All proposed strategies are shown to be competitive in an experimental evaluation.

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Notes

  1. Such cycles can be identified by a constraint reasoning, see Sect. 5.

  2. In some degenerate cases the principle of maximizing the available type 2 production capacity might turn out wrong. If there is little demand over a longer period of time, then type 2 power plants might not be able produce enough to comply with CT 11 and CT 12. But, this was not the case in the provided datasets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Logistics Systems Engineering, Research Center for Information Technology, Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Felix Brandt & Andreas Cardeneo

  2. Institute of Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Box 6980, 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Reinhard Bauer & Markus Völker

Authors
  1. Felix Brandt
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  2. Reinhard Bauer
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  3. Markus Völker
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  4. Andreas Cardeneo
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Correspondence to Felix Brandt.

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Brandt, F., Bauer, R., Völker, M. et al. A constraint programming-based approach to a large-scale energy management problem with varied constraints. J Sched 16, 629–648 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-012-0281-1

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