Solving the steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling problem with uncertain processing time under the TOU electricity price

The steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling problem with uncertain processing time (UPT) is studied, especially for the case that the charges have complex technical routes. In order to compensate the temperature dropping of the charges and minimize the electric power cost under the time-of-use (TOU) electricity price, a left-right hybrid adjustment method based on a critical charge is proposesd to adjust the LF refining time. In addition, considering that the basic processing time of the charges and the start casting time of the first cast are uncertain, a cascade cross entropy algorithm (CCEA) is proposed to solve the steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling problem. Two different simulation instances are designed to validate the good effect of the problem we considered in reducing the electric power cost.