A New Greedy Insertion Heuristic Algorithm with a Multi-Stage Filtering Mechanism for Energy-Efficient Single Machine Scheduling Problems

Hongliang Zhang,Chuanming Ge,Youcai Fang,Ruilin Pan

doi:10.3390/a11020018

Hongliang Zhang, Chuanming Ge + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/a11020018

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Journal: Algorithms	Publication Date: Feb 9, 2018
Citations: 12	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Anhui University of Technology

Abstract

To improve energy efficiency and maintain the stability of the power grid, time-of-use (TOU) electricity tariffs have been widely used around the world, which bring both opportunities and challenges to the energy-efficient scheduling problems. Single machine scheduling problems under TOU electricity tariffs are of great significance both in theory and practice. Although methods based on discrete-time or continuous-time models have been put forward for addressing this problem, they are deficient in solution quality or time complexity, especially when dealing with large-size instances. To address large-scale problems more efficiently, a new greedy insertion heuristic algorithm with a multi-stage filtering mechanism including coarse granularity and fine granularity filtering is developed in this paper. Based on the concentration and diffusion strategy, the algorithm can quickly filter out many impossible positions in the coarse granularity filtering stage, and then, each job can find its optimal position in a relatively large space in the fine granularity filtering stage. To show the effectiveness and computational process of the proposed algorithm, a real case study is provided. Furthermore, two sets of contrast experiments are conducted, aiming to demonstrate the good application of the algorithm. The experiments indicate that the small-size instances can be solved within 0.02 s using our algorithm, and the accuracy is further improved. For the large-size instances, the computation speed of our algorithm is improved greatly compared with the classic greedy insertion heuristic algorithm.

Highlights

Driven by the rapid development of global economy and civilization, there will be a consistent growth in energy consumption in the years ahead
The greedy insertion heuristic algorithm proposed by Che et al [9] is adopted for our contrast tests
This paper develops a new greedy insertion heuristic algorithm with a multi-stage filtering mechanism for single machine scheduling problems under TOU electricity tariffs

Summary

Introduction

Driven by the rapid development of global economy and civilization, there will be a consistent growth in energy consumption in the years ahead. Non-renewable energy resources such as coal, oil, and gas are diminishing day-by-day, which is threatening the sustainable development of many countries. Greenhouse gas emissions generated from inappropriate usage of fossil fuels have taken a heavy toll on the global climate as well as the atmospheric environment [2]. How to save energy and improve the environment quality has become a pressing matter of the moment. As the backbone of many countries, the industrial sector consumes about half of the world’s total energy and emits the most greenhouse gases [3,4]. Energy saving in the industry sector has priority in promoting sustainable economic development. Most of the energy is converted into the form of electricity that numerous industrial sectors use as their main energy [5,6]

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