A Reservoir Operation Policy Using Inter-Basin Water Transfer for Maximizing Hydroelectric Benefits in Brazil

The Hydrothermal Coordination problem consists of determining an operation policy for hydroelectric and thermoelectric plants within a given planning horizon. In systems with a predominance of hydraulic generation, the operation policy to be adopted should specify the operation of hydroelectric plants, so that hydroelectric resources are used economically and reliably. This work proposes the implementation of reservoir operation rules, using inter-basin water transfer through an optimization model based on Network Flow and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The proposed algorithm aims to obtain an optimized operation policy of power generation reservoirs and consequently to maximize the hydroelectric benefits of the hydrothermal generation system, to reduce the use of thermoelectric plants, the importation and/or energy deficit and to reduce the cost associated with meeting the demand and reduce CO2 emissions from combustion of fossil fuels used by thermoelectric plants. In order to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach, it was evaluated by optimizing two case studies using a system with four hydroelectric plants. The first case study does not consider transfer and water and the second case study uses water transfer between rivers. The obtained results illustrate that the proposed model allowed to maximize the hydroelectric resources of a hydrothermal generation system with economy and reliability.