The Research On Coal Inventory Management For Hefei No.2 Power Plant

Inventory, as one important approach to eliminate the unpredictable changes in supply and demand, is directly connected with business operation, economic benefits, and the credibility of manufacturing enterprises. However, inventory must absorb funds and increase storage expenses. Therefore, it is quite important to define an appropriate inventory level. In recent years, owing to the rapid development of China's economy, increasing pressure on coal resources worldwide, and inadequate railway transport capacity, domestic coal supply has been subject to serious shortage and consequently coal prices have increased continuously and dramatically. As the main coal users, coal-fired power plants, for lack of the application of new technology and theory in coal inventory management, are suffering unit shutdowns owing to constraints of coal shortage and/or paying exorbitant coal inventory cost to guarantee power generation. This not only results in huge economic loss, but also affects enterprise competitiveness in the current electricity market. Hence, research on coal inventory management for power plants makes good sense and can lead to economic benefit, and effectively increase the competitive edge of power plants.This article briefly presents the relevant theories of inventory management. Then, based on comparison and analysis of several common elements affecting stock storage, it closely examines the current coal management work at Hefei No. 2 Power plant together with the inventory theories, and selects both the Fixed Quantity Order Model and the Periodic Review Order Model under random-parameter, unallowed short-supply, safety stock, and non-instantaneous replenishment conditions. It investigates the safety stock level, order quantity, order point and other key data for fuel coal management at Hefei No.2 Power Plant. Finally, a readily accessible, user-friendly Microsoft Access database system for coal management at Hefei No.2 Power Plant is provided in this article, which permits easy data entry, calculation and analysis by power plant staff. After comparison with orthodox coal management, the above two models prove to be feasible, efficient, and cost-saving both in fuel handling and enterprise economic benefits.