An optimization model to maximize energy generation in short-term hydropower unit commitment using efficiency points

This paper presents a linear mixed-integer formulation to solve the short-term hydropower unit commitment problem. It uses the pair of maximum efficiency points of water discharge and the power produced at the maximum storage for all possible combinations of turbines. The goal is to maximize total energy production for all periods. The objective function is calculated using the correction between the power produced at the current volume and the maximum storage and penalizes unit start-ups. Constraints on the maximum number of turbine changes are imposed to find a viable solution. Computational results are reported for 65 instances with two powerhouses of five turbines each located in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of the province of Quebec in Canada.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a linear mixed-integer formulation to address the short-term hydropower unit commitment problem by maximizing total energy production through optimizing water discharge and power points of turbine combinations. The algorithm penalizes turbine start-ups and imposes constraints on the maximum number of turbine changes to find a feasible solution. Computational results are presented for instances in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec in Canada.