Efficient methods for optimal scheduling of fixed head hydrothermal power systems

A simple, reliable, and effective approach to the solution of hydrothermal dispatch problems is presented. It is based on computing the LU factors corresponding to a permutation of the rows of the Jacobian matrix (Lagrange matrix) at each iteration. The economic operation of hydrothermal systems is further reformulated as a linearly constrained least-squares problem, leading to another iterative technique that needs much less computer storage when the hydro plant performance curve is modeled by a linear function. Results for sample systems are worked out in order to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed techniques