The optimal-sizing of energy storage for a fossil fuel power plant

We develop a mathematical model for optimizing energy storage size for a fossil fuel power plant. The electricity generated by the power plant is transmitted to the transmission and distribution station and then consumed by the end-customers. Besides providing electricity for end customers, a power plant also supplies electricity to their utility system to fulfill the in-house demand. In the production activity, power plant used coal as a raw material to produce electricity. Power plant needs to order coal from the supplier by considering the conversion factor from coal to electricity. The proposed model considers in-house demand, end-customer’s demand and a conversion factor of fuel to electricity. The objective of the model is to determine the supply size of in-house demand, shipment size of end-customers demand and production lot size factor to minimize a total cost incurred by a power plant. We utilize an inventory theory to develop our model and propose an algorithm to obtain the optimal solutions for this problem. A numerical example and sensitivity analysis are provided to illustrate the application of the model and to study the influence of some key parameters on model’s behavior. The results show that the total cost is significantly affected by some parameters which are setup cost, demand, and production rate.