In an attempt to improve the process of supplying coal by way of water to Progress Energyâs Crystal River power plant, a simulation-based technique was developed to find the best schedule of coal barges. The technique uses discrete event simulation principles to find the best solution based on two criteria: minimal demurrage cost and maximal coal tons moved. Many factors are taken into account including channel capacity, tide dependencies, weather delays, periods of scheduled down time, and percentage of trips to each coal terminal. The same technique is also used for long range planning in the decisions of capital allocation of equipment, barge contracts, and coal supplier contracts. A Graphical User Interface coupled with Visual Basic .Net (VB .Net) code is used to implement the approach in a user-friendly and maintainable environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-01082008-080147 |
| Date | 24 April 2008 |
| Creators | White, David Elliot |
| Contributors | Dr. Donald Warsing, Dr. Russell King, Dr. Thom Hodgson |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-01082008-080147/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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