Port Logistics Node Scale-Planning In The Electricity Coal Logistics Network

A logistics network of electricity coal consists of coal mines sitting in the upstream, users in the downstream, various electricity coal logistics nodes and logistics corridors which connect them in the middle. Among varieties of logistics nodes, those located in ports play a vital role to connect the precedings and the followings, as well as to adjust demand and supply. However, there is currently a lack of intensive study and literature regarding a specific issue in terms of determining the scale of those logistics nodes in ports.Under the actual background of HD Corporation, this paper researches the influencing factors and determination methods of the scale of electricity coal logistics nodes located in ports. In the analysis the influencing factors section,15factors including utilizations rate of trains and energy consumption per unit are put forward from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives as per capacity and area of site. Based upon all kinds of influencing factors, a supply-and-demand balancing model is firstly built to ascertain the overall capacity scale of nodes, followed by determining capacity scale of a single node by using AHP methods, then to determine the area of site with respect to known capacity. Finally, the feasibility and the availability of the model are verified by the empirical analysis of actual examples in the region B of HD Corporation. The thoughts and approaches applied in this research are instructive and useful for the determination of electricity coal logistics nodes in ports.