Extended Resource Task Network for Collaborative Scheduling of Material and Energy Flows in Iron and Steel Enterprises

Taking the interactive relationship between material and energy flows in the iron and steel enterprises into account, this paper proposes extended resource task network (ERTN) to achieve collaborative scheduling of materials and energy flows in the production. In the ERTN, excess resource balance constraint is modified to consider materials and energy simultaneous and consistent. Additional constraints are introduced, such as energy balance, gas-electricity transfer and electricity generation constraints. A case study illustrates the efficiency of proposed ERTN model. It is shown that under variable electricity prices, the production profit of optimizing total profit is 33.528 % higher than that of optimizing excess molten iron, by collaboratively scheduling of materials and energy in the production.