Optimal scheduling of hydrothermal coordination in Uganda. (Unpublished undergraduate dissertation). Makerere University, Kampala , Uganda.

Abstract

A power system whose operation involves both hydro and thermal plants is far more complex than that consisting of hydro plants only, as hydro plants have negligible operating costs, but have to operate under constraints of water available for hydrogenation over the given period of time. The problem of operating both hydro and thermal plants can be seen as that of minimizing the fuel cost of running thermal plants under the constraint of water availability (storage and inflow) for hydro generation over a given scheduling horizon.There are different techniques of solving this hydrothermal scheduling problem, key is identifying that the problem is a convex optimization problem and then various techniques are brought into play to achieve the best optimization solution. The different solutions include Lagrange relaxation, augmented Lagrange relaxation, genetic algorithm, evolutionary programming, water cycle algorithm etc. The hydrothermal scheduling problem consists of two kinds basing on the scheduling horizon, the short term hydrothermal scheduling ( daily to weekly) and the long term hydrothermal scheduling (months to years). The work done in this project is to present the optimal scheduling of hydrothermal coordination in Uganda in particular a short term hydrothermal scheduling problem. The solution approach is based on Lagrange relaxation, it presents the in-depth scheduling of power from the thermal and hydro plants to meet the load demand, allocating sequences of water releases so as to minimize the fuel costs of the thermal plant. The model consists of one hydro and one thermal plant. The work done in this project would be of invaluable addition to the understanding of the short term hydrothermal coordination in Uganda.