Unlike water resource management for irrigation purposes, optimizing a hydro facility operation requires the integration of uncertainty in the market price of electricity as well as the uncertainty in the inflow rate. In this research, the framework for a dynamic programming model was established to maximize the expected gross margin from operations. A Markov process was used for the flow rate of water into the reservoirs from streams and the problem was solved for many price scenarios. To reduce the computational effort, a meta-model was constructed for the calculation of the water usage and revenue. Future topics for research are suggested within this study. With these ideas implemented, the model is expected to give desirable operation schedules.
Advisor: Dr. Clark A. Mount-CampbellNo embarg
