Mathematical optimisation

2 questions for... (2)
Michel Gondran,
Scientific advisor in the Research and Development division of EDF.
Rail & Recherche n°23 - April/May/June 2002

Rail & Recherche: What does mathematical optimisation bring to a company like EDF?
Michel Gondran: For EDF, it is first of all the scheduling of networks to be built. Then the annual management of the power stations, scheduling basic production, which is done on a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily basis, or even for the following hour. And here there are always combinatorial problems, in other words, discrete variables: I start-up or I do not start-up a power station. There are also shut-down time-slots, each year, for servicing. That involves tens of thousands of tasks to programme so that the shut-down lasts the shortest possible amount of time.

R & R: What new fields are opening up to optimisation?
M. G.: For the past two years, the liberalisation of the electricity market has been posing new problems of buying and selling electricity in the short and medium term. Some customers purchase electricity from us for next winter. Others buy it to resell it. A whole market is in the making for which you need to define and capitalise on products. These are new subjects of optimisation which use slightly different methods.