Optimization of variable-head hydropower system operation considering power shortage aspect with quadratic programming and successive approximation

Highlights: • This study is from the common problem of electricity shortage in power system. • The hydropower operation model considering power shortage aspect is given. • A quadratic programming (QP) algorithm is presented to resolve this problem. • The QP method has satisfactory performance in alleviating electricity shortage. With the rapid economic development, the demand for energy is becoming stronger in recent years. However, due to the lack of sufficient electrical capacity to satisfy the huge load demand, the problem of energy shortage is becoming an increasingly prominent issue throughout the world. With the merits of fast startup and shutdown, hydropower is often preferred to reduce the electricity shortage of power system as much as possible. Hence, this research presents an effective optimization model for the complex variable-head hydropower system operation problem considering electricity shortage objective, and then a novel quadratic programming (QP) method is developed to resolve this model. In the QP algorithm, the domain knowledge is used to estimate the initial operation condition of hydroplants from upstream to downstream, and then the nonlinear generation characteristics of hydroplants is addressed by solving a series of subproblems with dynamically updated water head, and the quality of solution is gradually improved via iterative optimization. The simulations in different scenarios indicate that the QP method can effectively achieve the goal of reducing electricity shortages of power grid, which provides a new perspective to enrich the published knowledge in the field of hydropower operation.