STUDIES IN FUEL SUPPLY AND AIR QUALITY PLANNING BY ELECTRIC UTILITIES   Yung-Tang Shen   Air quality control and fuel management are important considerations for electric utilities. In this study, a comprehensive air quality and fuel management linear programming (LP) model is developed, dealing with fuel purchases, consumption, inventory and air quality control strategies, while considering types of purchases (contract and spot), inventory requirements, electricity demand, annual SO$/sb2$ emission allowance caps, and ambient air quality standards, so as to minimize total fuel purchase, inventory, and air quality control costs over a given planning horizon. Three air quality control strategies applied to a hypothetical electric utility are investigated. The LP model is also solved for several combinations of values for seven selected parameters, including coal heat value and sulfur content, efficiency of abatement technology, ambient air quality standards, and emission caps, in the case of a strategy of coal burning with pollution abatement technology. The results, including the optimal total costs and decision variables, are related to the seven selected parameters through regression analysis. The policy implication of these results are then discussed. The inputs to the LP mode are, in part, based on extensive statistical analyses of coal characteristics and power plant fuel usage patterns. The analyses of coal characteristics, including heat value, sulfur content, and ash content, involve various statistical techniques, such as correlation and time-series analyses. Seven hundred and seven (707) coal mines data series make up the sample used for these analyses, across all U.S. regions and for different types of coal mines. The results provide electric utility planners the opportunity to better understand the implications of temporally and geographically varying coal characteristics. Ninety-nine (99) power plants are selected and used to characterize the fuel consumption and inventory patterns of different types of power plants.