Excel Optimisation

[sandipgumtya365]

Hi people.  I am facing a typical issue. I have one excel financial model. Can you suggest any tool for optimization of multiple parameters with certain constraints .is it doable in Excel with any add-ins? Any other software is suggested? TIA

[#2]

@sandipgumtya365 

I am not an expert in the specific area, but I can tell you that your inquiry is so very open-ended that even experts in Financial models would be hard-pressed to know where to begin.

You could help yourself be helped by putting a few more boundaries on your question.

To get you started:

• Financial modeling of what, precisely?(Stocks, Business Plans, Government Programs, ......)
• What are examples (if not an exhaustive list) of the parameters that could be involved in YOUR financial model?
• Constraints?

Excel can do a lot in this area. I assume you're familiar with the various categories of functions, etc., within Excel, but if you could describe a bit more your own level of experience, that too would be helpful.

[#3]

@mathetes 

Thanks for the inputs.

The model is about Power sales.

The objective is to Maximise IRR while minimizing inadvertent power sales and maintaining a certain level of saleable power.

The are 4-5 constraints. Those are the product mix. ie. different source of powers (solar, wind Hydro ec.). Each source has its own per unit capex. 

If any more specific details are required, I shall share. Due to confidentiality I can't upload the model here. Sorry for this.

Looking forward for a solution.

[#4]

@sandipgumtya365 

A search for multi+objective+optimization+Excel produces pages of results.  I couldn't determine whether FrontlineSolvers (the company behind Solver) offers multi-objective optimisation or not.  Many add-ins appear to be MOGA (genetic algorithms).  The primary output of multi-objective optimisation is the Pareto frontier and you still will have to decide on further criteria to select one design or set of operating conditions over another.

A further thought, you could start exploring options by treating all but one of the objectives as constraints and move the bounds between optimisation runs to gain some insight as to the trade-offs that are available.

[#5]

OK@Peter Bartholomew .

Let's try this out.