Optimal operation of cascaded hydroelectric power plants in the power market

【Abstract】 An improved network flow algorithm, which includes the minimum cost network flow and the same period network flow, is proposed to solve the optimization of cascaded hydroelectric power plants in a competitive electricity market. The typical network flow is used to find the feasible flow and add the discharge water to different cascaded hydroelectric power plants at the same step. The same period network flow is used to find the optimal flow and add the power output at a different step. This new algorithm retains the advantages of the typical network flow, such as simplicity and ease of realization. The result of the case analysis indicates that the new algorithm can achieve high calculation precision and can be used to calculate the optimal operation of cascaded hydroelectric power plants.更多还原