MSEN

The goal of this project is to determine the production and distribution of energy for a national economy. The model has a number of components linked into a hierarchical structure. There are alternative sources (foreign and domestic) of raw energy (oil, coal and gas). Some of these forms of raw energy are transported to conversion centers (refineries and electric-utilities) and sinks (residential, transportation and industrial). The conversion centers have as input some form of raw energy and produce processed energy (gasoline and electricity) as output. Each conversion center has its own technology coefficients for converting raw energy to processed energy. The production process at the conversion centers is modeled as "product-mix" or "process-selection" problems. The processed energy is transported to different destinations. Each transportation path for each type of energy has its own cost. The problem is to find the least cost of transportation and the production pattern.