DAILY SCHEDULING OF SMALL HYDRO POWER PLANTS DISPATCH WITH MODIFIED PARTICLES SWARM OPTIMIZATION

This paper presents a new approach for short-term hydro power scheduling of reservoirs using an algorithm-based Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). PSO is a population-based algorithm designed to find good solutions to optimization problems, its characteristics have encouraged its adoption to tackle a variety of problems in different fields. In this paper the authors consider an optimization problem related to a daily scheduling of small hydro power dispatch. The goal is construct a feasible solution that maximize the cascade electricity production, following the environmental constraints and water balance. The paper proposes an improved Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, which takes advantage of simplicity and facility of implementation. The algorithm was successfully applied to the optimization of the daily schedule strategies of small hydro power plants, considering maximum water utilization and all constraints related to simultaneous water uses. Extensive computational tests and comparisons with other heuristics methods showed the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

particle swarm optimization; small hydro power plants; daily scheduling