Operational hydropower scheduling with post-spot distribution of reserve obligations

Abstract

As a reliable and flexible electric power source, hydropower can quickly adjust its generation level and provide reserve power to balance the power fluctuations in the system. In this paper, we assume that the day-ahead spot market is cleared and the obligation for each reserve type is already contracted in a preceding market. Then the question is how to make the optimal decision to determine, for each unit and for each time step, the dispatched volume for the day-ahead market and the reserved capacity for various types of reserve. We formulate the constraints added to the optimization problem for distributing reserve obligations. The proposed mathematical formulation is based on an operational hydropower scheduling model used by most large hydro-power producers in Scandinavia.