Optimal operation of hydropower systems with environmental constraints on reservoir management

Abstract Hydropower systems' unique capability to provide flexibility and long-term energy storage makes the low-carbon technology a key contributor to cost-effective and reliable decarbonisation of power systems. To ensure sustainable operation, environmental regulations are normally imposed on the plants. Some of these regulations can be difficult to model in existing scheduling tools based on optimisation because of their non-convex and logical characteristics. This study assesses the operational impacts of two types of environmental reservoir constraints, as well as the economic impacts of considering these constraints in medium-term hydropower scheduling. The results show that optimal reservoir management may change considerably due to these types of constraints. Furthermore, improved planning results in a decent increase in expected profit to the power producer under certain price assumptions in several of the simulated cases.