A Unit Commitment Algorithm and a Compact MILP Model for Short-Term Hydro-Power Generation Scheduling

This paper presents a unit commitment algorithm that defines each unit discharge given the water head, the total plant downstream flow, the variable discharge upper limit, the unit efficiency curves, and the restricted operating zones in order to maximize power efficiency. This algorithm is part of the preprocessing phase that is intended to approximate a hydro-power production function that represents individualized unit decisions. A compact mixed-integer linear programming formulation, with fewer integer variables, based on an equivalent unit model and a piecewise linear generation function, is proposed. The unit commitment is integrated without increasing the model size and complexity due to the preprocessing phase. Moreover, the optimal aggregate decision is automatically converted to unit decisions by the proposed algorithm. The coordination with mid/long-term planning is performed by taking into account the power demand allocated to the hydro-power plants. Numerical tests on Brazilian hydro-power plants demonstrate that the proposed formulation has lower computational cost than unit individualized models considering a given accuracy level for the generation function approximation.