Multi-Objective Optimization of Multi-Reservoir Operation Rules with Controlling Critical Water Levels

A new method is developed to identify the operation rules of multiple-reservoir system by controlling critical water levels. Several critical water levels at the begging and endding of the flood season are first introduced and taken as optimization variables. The historical inflows each year are considered in the optimization to find a satisfactory operation decesion as the initial solution of operating rule. Two objectives of maximizing the annual power generation and minimizing the spilled water are adopted to further optimize the solution with the predicted runoff. Finally, the empirical decision helps to determine the rational operation result. The proposed method has been applied to the cascaded hydropower plants on the Lancang River. The application results show that our method can obtain feasible operation rules, which is more useful in the real-world engineering compared to the conventional operation rule.