The electric power industry is moving away from a regulated utility model, toward a deregulated market-based model - thereby intending to improve system efficiency by reducing generation costs and customer prices, while at the same time improving capital expenditures and service reliability....

Two heuristics based on branch and bound (B&B) are developed to solve closed-loop material requirements planning (MRP) lot-sizing problems that have general product structures and variable costs. A “look ahead method'’(LAM) heuristic allows for variable production/purchasing costs and uses a...