Renāta Varfolomejeva

Small hydropower plants operations optimization in the market conditions

This paper intends to give an overview and identifies best practice designs for European feed-in tariffs targeted to support renewable generation. Furthermore, it introduces and compares feed-in premium designs of different European countries. The main purpose of this work is to develop optimal short-term planning models for price taker hydropower producer working in the existing regimes. Those models have to deal with the high level of uncertainty which is the water power introduces into the power system. We intend to provide guidance in decision-making aimed at maximizing the profit. A detailed analysis is made of a simpler reservoir configuration, which indicates that even though the problem is nonlinear, a bang-bang type of control is optimal, where the power stations are operated at maximum rates of flow. Some simple relationships between price and timing of decisions are calculated directly. A numerical algorithm is also developed. The task of a small HPP operation regime is solved for the maximum income within the cases of the known variation of prices at the market. An optimization tool known as generalized reduced gradient method for nonlinear optimization tasks is used to plan hydropower production under uncertainties.

Hydropower Plant Regime Management According to the Market Conditions

The dimensions and significance of the modern systems prove the necessity to change principles of the systems management. In order to decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, fight climate change, not adhere to fuel resources and increase energy security while decreasing its dependences on foreign countries, many country governments took actions to exploit its domestic resources and raise the renewable energies in the electricity production, that is why renewable energy is a key issue in today’s world and may continue to play a globally essential role in the future. Turkey has a large renewable energy potential it is still on a development process and has relevant natural hydropower potential, which is about 1.1 % of the worldwide and 13.75 % of the European potential. The main purpose of this work is to develop optimal short-term planning models for price taker hydropower producer working in the existing regimes. Those models have to deal with the huge level of uncertainty which is the water power introduces into the power system. Hydropower stations (20 MW or less) operation effectiveness under the conditions of market relations is defined by means of income value that is determined during the calculation period. This income can be obtained in the regime providing as large as possible HPP electric energy production with particular water consumption within a considered period. The value of these incomes can be calculated in accordance with pre-set market prices for electric energy within the calculated period. This paper addresses optimization techniques, model applications, and operational issues. Our goal was devoted to the problem of small HPP control regimes optimization. The task of a small HPP operation regime is solved for the maximum income within the cases of the known variation of prices at the market. An optimization tool known as generalized reduced gradient method for nonlinear optimization tasks is used to plan hydropower production under uncertainties. The developed forecasting and optimization technics are established on optimization of the Cobanli HPP in Turkey considering hydropower production and flood control. Optimization of powerhouse regimes operation rules provides optimal solutions that have a larger hydropower potential compared to the present regulations. It’s concluded that real-time optimization in normal flow situations provide solutions that trades-off the immediate and the future value of hydropower production. We developed a model for hydropower plant scheduling under market and fixed electricity price and water inflow rates for to achieve greatest economic benefit.