A Decision Support System for Fuel Supply Chain Design at Tampa Electric Company

Anna Danandeh (), Bo Zeng (), Brent Caldwell () and Brian Buckley ()
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Anna Danandeh: Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620
Bo Zeng: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Brent Caldwell: Tampa Electric Company, Tampa, Florida 33601
Brian Buckley: Tampa Electric Company, Tampa, Florida 33601

Interfaces, 2016, vol. 46, issue 6, 503-521

Abstract: Tampa Electric Company (TECO), which serves 687,000 customers in Florida, generates 60 percent of its electricity using coal-fired generators. To meet environmental regulations on the emission of coal combustion, it must carefully mix several fuels of different qualities to make safe, environmentally friendly, and affordable blends that are generator specific. We worked with the management and engineering teams at TECO to develop a decision support platform, which centers around a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model to comprehensively capture system specifications, requirements, and operations in all key aspects of TECO’s fuel supply chain. This platform enables TECO to make optimal procurement, transportation, blending, and burn decisions and satisfy all environmental regulations. We estimate that the implementation of this model can provide TECO with annual fuel-cost savings of 2–3 percent, which translate to millions of dollars of savings in total fuel costs.

Keywords: fuel supply chain; power plant optimization; transportation and logistics; coal blending; decision support system; mixed-integer programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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