An electrical utility needs to generate 6,500 megawatts of electricity today. It has five generators. If any electricity is generated by a given generator, that generated must be started up and a fixed start-up cost is incurred. There is an additional cost for each megawatt generated by a generator. These costs, as well as the maximum capacity of each generator, are shown in the following table. The objective is to determine the minimum cost plan that meets the electrical needs for today.
a) Formulate the above problem mathematically.
b) Formulate and solve the above problem on a spreadsheet using Excel.