Fuzzy bicriteria multi-index transportation problems for coal allocation planning of Taipower

Taipower, the official electricity authority of Taiwan, encounters several difficulties in planning annual coal purchase and allocation schedule, e.g., with multiple sources, multiple destinations, multiple coal types, different shipping vessels, and even in uncertain demand and supply. In this study, these concerns are formulated as a fuzzy bicriteria multi-index transportation problem. Furthermore, an effective and interactive algorithm is proposed which combines reducing index method and interactive fuzzy multi-objective linear programming technique to cope with a complicated problem which may be prevalent in other industries. Results obtained in this study clearly demonstrate that this model can not only satisfy more of the actual requirements of the integral system but also offer more information to the decision makers (DMs) for reference in favor of exalting decision making quality.