Short-term scheduling of large-scale hydropower systems for energy maximization

This paper describes a short-term hydro generation optimization program that is required by Fujian Electric Power Company Ltd. (FEPCL) to maximize hydropower production, given the beginning-of-study content of each reservoir and the end-of-study contents of the reservoirs with long-term storage. The optimal hydro scheduling problem is formulated as nonlinear programming with linear constraints and is solved by a direct search procedure. A cycling module is used to estimate the end-of-study contents of the reservoirs with short-term storage and the discharge delay releases from upper reservoirs, and then a transition module is solved to obtain the optimal generation scheduling. The system model is already operational for large-scale hydro systems, and currently is being used by FEPCL's operation engineers to determine hourly or half-hourly generation schedules over a period of up to three days.