Optimal Algorithms for Scheduling under Time-of-Use Tariffs

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the sum of (weighted) completion times. It is not difficult to derive a polynomial-time algorithm for preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan on unrelated machines. The problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time is considerably harder, even on a single machine. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time-slots to be used for scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. For the more general problem, in which jobs may have individual weights, we develop a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed. As the weighted problem is strongly NP-hard, our PTAS is the best possible approximation we can hope for.Comment: 17 pages; A preliminary version of this paper with a subset of results appeared in the Proceedings of MFCS 201

Optimal Algorithms and a PTAS for Cost-Aware Scheduling

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the sum of (weighted) completion times. It is not dicult to derive a polynomial-time algorithm for preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan on unrelated machines. The problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time is considerably harder, even on a single machine. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time-slots to be used for scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. Furthermore, we argue that there is a (4+")-approximation algorithm for the strongly NP-hard problem with individual job weights. For this weighted version, we also give a PTAS based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed

Optimal Algorithms and a PTAS for Cost-Aware Scheduling

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the sum of (weighted) completion times. It is not dicult to derive a polynomial-time algorithm for preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan on unrelated machines. The problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time is considerably harder, even on a single machine. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time-slots to be used for scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. Furthermore, we argue that there is a (4+")-approximation algorithm for the strongly NP-hard problem with individual job weights. For this weighted version, we also give a PTAS based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed

Optimal Algorithms for Scheduling under Time-of-Use Tariffs

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the sum of (weighted) completion times. It is not difficult to derive a polynomial-time algorithm for preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan on unrelated machines. The problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time is considerably harder, even on a single machine. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time-slots to be used for scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. For the more general problem, in which jobs may have individual weights, we develop a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed. As the weighted problem is strongly NP-hard, our PTAS is the best possible approximation we can hope for

Optimal Algorithms for Scheduling under Time-of-Use Tariffs

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the sum of (weighted) completion times. It is not difficult to derive a polynomial-time algorithm for preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan on unrelated machines. The problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time is considerably harder, even on a single machine. We present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time-slots to be used for scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. For the more general problem, in which jobs may have individual weights, we develop a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed. As the weighted problem is strongly NP-hard, our PTAS is the best possible approximation we can hope for

Optimal algorithms for scheduling under time-of-use tariffs

We consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems to a setting in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost, the time-of-use tariff, which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We focus on preemptive single-machine scheduling and two classical scheduling cost functions, the sum of (weighted) completion times and the maximum completion time, that is, the makespan. While these problems are easy to solve in the classical scheduling setting, they are considerably more complex when time-of-use tariffs must be considered. We contribute optimal polynomial-time algorithms and best possible approximation algorithms. For the problem of minimizing the total (weighted) completion time on a single machine, we present a polynomial-time algorithm that computes for any given sequence of jobs an optimal schedule, i.e., the optimal set of time slots to be used for preemptively scheduling jobs according to the given sequence. This result is based on dynamic programming using a subtle analysis of the structure of optimal solutions and a potential function argument. With this algorithm, we solve the unweighted problem optimally in polynomial time. For the more general problem, in which jobs may have individual weights, we develop a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) based on a dual scheduling approach introduced for scheduling on a machine of varying speed. As the weighted problem is strongly NP-hard, our PTAS is the best possible approximation we can hope for. For preemptive scheduling to minimize the makespan, we show that there is a comparably simple optimal algorithm with polynomial running time. This is true even in a certain generalized model with unrelated machines

Multi-Microgrid Collaborative Optimization Scheduling Using an Improved Multi-Agent Soft Actor-Critic Algorithm

The implementation of a multi-microgrid (MMG) system with multiple renewable energy sources enables the facilitation of electricity trading. To tackle the energy management problem of a MMG system, which consists of multiple renewable energy microgrids belonging to different operating entities, this paper proposes a MMG collaborative optimization scheduling model based on a multi-agent centralized training distributed execution framework. To enhance the generalization ability of dealing with various uncertainties, we also propose an improved multi-agent soft actor-critic (MASAC) algorithm, which facilitates en-ergy transactions between multi-agents in MMG, and employs automated machine learning (AutoML) to optimize the MASAC hyperparameters to further improve the generalization of deep reinforcement learning (DRL). The test results demonstrate that the proposed method successfully achieves power complementarity between different entities, and reduces the MMG system operating cost. Additionally, the proposal significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithms with better economy and higher calculation efficiency.Comment: Accepted by Energie