Optimal generation scheduling in hydro-power plants with the Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm

Hydro-power plants are able to produce electrical energy in a sustainable way. A known format for producing energy is through generation scheduling, which is a task usually established as a Unit Commitment problem. The challenge in this process is to define the amount of energy that each turbine-gen...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gil Marcelino, Carolina, Salcedo Sanz, Sancho|||0000-0002-4048-1676, Jiménez Fernández, Silvia|||0000-0002-2065-1754, Camacho Gómez, Carlos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositorio:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/47548
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/47548
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en14092443
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Generation scheduling
Hydro-power plants
Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm
Meta-heuristics
Bio-inspired algorithms
Energy efficiency
Informática
Energías Renovables/Energías Alternativas
Computer science
Alternative energies
Descripción
Sumario:Hydro-power plants are able to produce electrical energy in a sustainable way. A known format for producing energy is through generation scheduling, which is a task usually established as a Unit Commitment problem. The challenge in this process is to define the amount of energy that each turbine-generator needs to deliver to the plant, to fulfill the requested electrical dispatch commitment, while coping with the operational restrictions. An optimal generation scheduling for turbine-generators in hydro-power plants can offer a larger amount of energy to be generated with respect to non-optimized schedules, with significantly less water consumption. This work presents an efficient mathematical modelling for generation scheduling in a real hydro-power plant in Brazil. An optimization method based on different versions of the Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm with Substrate Layers (CRO) is proposed as an effective method to tackle this problem.This approach uses different search operators in a single population to refine the search for an optimal scheduling for this problem. We have shown that the solution obtained with the CRO using Gaussian search in exploration is able to produce competitive solutions in terms of energy production. The results obtained show a huge savings of 13.98 billion (liters of water) monthly projected versus the non-optimized scheduling.