Optimum Fuel Allocation in Power Plants

This paper describes the application of mathematical programming to the power plant economic optimization problem. The problem is formulated for power plants consisting of a number of boiler-turbine-generator combinations each with specified efficiency-load-fuel characteristics. The total electrical output of the power plant is also specified. The objective is to find the operating level and the fuel-mixture ratio of each boiler-turbine-generator combination to minimize fuel costs.