Optimization tools for short-term hydropower generation management

Short-term hydropower optimization models are used on a daily basis to dispatch the available water for production between the turbines of the power plants that compose an hydropower system. Rio Tinto owns and operates power plants in the Saguenay Lac-St-Jean region of the province of Quebec and is currently lacking efficient tools to help the engineers in the daily decision making for the management of their hydropower system. The objective of this project is to develop tools to solve the short-term optimization model and therefore improve the water productivity of the hydropower system. The three main objectives are the following: 1) Propose a mathematical modeling of the short-term problem 2) Propose efficient numerical techniques to solve the model developed 3) Develop an optimization method to schedule the maintenance of the turbines.

Faculty Supervisor:

Miguel Anjos

Student:

Ikenna Ezike

Partner:

Rio Tinto Alcan

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Energy

University:

Program: