2018/05/02 by Jorn Baayen, Baayen, Jorn H., Julia Rauw +3
Engineering · Environmental Science · #FOS: Mathematics #Optimization and Control (math.OC) #Water Systems and Optimization #Water resources management and optimization #Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1805.01292
openalex publication_date 2018/05/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The instantaneous power generation from a hydroelectric turbine is proportional to the product of head difference and turbine flow. The equation relating power to hydraulic variables is therefore nonlinear. Hence, optimization problems subject to this relation, such as release schedule optimization, are nonconvex and may admit multiple local isolated minima. This renders such problems problematic for use in operational model predictive control. This paper shows that release schedule optimization problems subject to the nonlinear turbine generation equation may be set up using a continuation approach to be both zero-convex and path stable. In this way such optimization problems become suitable for decision support systems based on model predictive control. An example problem is studied, and it is shown that significant productivity gains may be realized using the presented methodology.