Along with the increasing importance of sustainable energy, the optimization of load assignment to boilers in an industrial boiler plant becomes one of the major projects for the optimal operation of boiler plants. Optimal load assignment for power systems has been a long-lasting subject, while it is quite new for industrial boiler plants. The existing methods of optimal load assignment for boiler plants are explained and analyzed briefly in the paper. They all need the fuel cost curves of boilers. Thanks to some special features of the curves for industrial boilers, a new model referred to as minimized departure model (MDM) of optimization of load assignment for boiler plants is developed and proposed in the paper. It merely relies upon the accessible data of two typical working conditions to build the model, viz. the working conditions with the highest efficiency of a boiler and with no-load. Explanation of the algorithm of computer program is given, and effort is made so as to determine in advance how many and which boilers are going to work. Comparison between the results using MDM and the results reported in references is carried out, which proves that MDM is preferable and practicable. Along with the increasing importance of sustainable energy, the optimization of load assignment to boilers in an industrial boiler plant becomes one major project for the optimal operation of boiler plants. Optimal load assignment for power systems has been a long-lasting subject, while The existing methods of optimal load assignment for boiler plants are explained and analyzed briefly in the paper. Thanks to some special features of the curves for industrial boilers, a new model referred to as minimized departure model (MDM) of optimization of load assignment for boiler plants is developed and proposed in the paper. It merely relies upon the accessible data of two typical working conditions to build the model, viz. the working conditions with the highest efficiency of a boiler and with no-load. Explanation of the algorithm of computer program is given, and effort is made so as to deter mine in advance how many and which boilers are going to work. Comparison between the results using MDM and the results reported in references is carried out, which proves that MDM is preferable and practicable.