Short term hydropower dispatching optimization of cascaded hydropower stations based on two-stage optimization

A two-stage optimization strategy and its models for short-term hydropower dispatching optimization is developed to solve unit commitment and load distribution problem with unit commitment optimization sub-model and min water consumption sub-model. Moreover, improved ant algorithm with new selection mechanism and iteration mechanism are introduced for optimization. The proposed methods are employed to solve short-term hydropower dispatching optimization of Longyangxia-Lijiaxia cascaded hydropower stations in Yellow river. Operation characteristics of units and their combined operation strategies are developed by the field test. The results show that the proposed methods are able to obtain dispatching solution with lower water consumption rate and better load distribution and feasible unit commitment.