PROJECT SCHEDULING OPTIMIZATION IN ELECTRICAL POWER UTILITIES

The problem of choosing from a set of projects which ones should be executed and whenthey should start, depending on several restrictions involving project costs, risks, limited resources, dependencies among projects, and aiming at different, even conflicting, goals is known as the project portfolio selection (PPS) problem. We study a particular version of the PPS problem stemming from the operation of a real power generation company. It includes distinct categories of resources, intricate dependencies between projects, which are especially important for the management of power plants, and the prevention of risks. We present an algorithm based on the GRASP meta-heuristic for finding better results thanmanual solutions produced by specialists. The algorithm yielded solutions that decreased the risk by 47%, as measured by the company's standard methodology