Multidimensional Parallel Dynamic Programming Algorithm Based on Spark for Large-Scale Hydropower Systems

The “curse of dimensionality” is a major problem in dynamic programming (DP) algorithms for large-scale hydropower systems. This study proposes a parallel DP algorithm based on Spark (PDPoS) to alleviate the “curse of dimensionality”. Parallel computing experiments are formulated by varying the number of reservoirs, the number of discrete water levels and the number of CPU cores to analyze the quality and efficiency of PDPoS. The methodologies were applied to a cascade reservoir system made up of eight reservoirs in the Yuanshui River Basin in China. The results are as follows. (1) The number of discrete water levels is the dominant factor in the solution quality, while the number of reservoirs is the dominant factor in the solving efficiency. (2) The runtime of PDPoS is markedly affected by the calculational scale (determined by the number of reservoirs and discrete water levels), and the relationship between the number of CPU cores and the runtime is triphasic with increasing calculational scale. (3) The larger the calculational scale is, the better the parallel performance (i.e., the parallel speedup and parallel efficiency). The proposed PDPoS method has strong generality, high parallel performance, and high practical value.