The food control techniques in hydroelectric power plants

Author(s)

Marco Aurélio de Almeida Castro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2003-04-04

Examining board members

Adriano Alber de Franca Mendes Carneiro; Marinho Gomes de Andrade Filho; Denis Vinicius Coury

• Advisor: Adriano Alber de Franca Mendes Carneiro

Abstract

In the Brazilian hydrothermal power system the use of hydropower corresponds to about 92% of the total energy generation. Hence the reservoirs of the hydroelectric power plants assume the important role of regulating the water flow of many rivers. The objective of flood control is to regulate the power plants releases preventing damages to the plants themselves, to downstream regions and to marginal cities. The food control techniques in hydroelectric power plants are based on the allocation of empty volumes in the reservoirs, in order to accommodate future water inflow peaks. As the maintenance of these empty volumes harms the energy generation, the techniques applied to their determination need careful studies and analyses. In this work four methodologies to specify the needed empty volumes are investigated: (i) Method of Curve Volume X Duration, the first method applied in the Brazilian Power System; (ii) Method of Curve Volume X Duration by Windows which applies the concept of time windows to the method (i); (iii) Method of the Critical Trajectories, currently very applied in the Brazilian Power System, which is based on a recursive algorithm; (iv) Method of the Stochastic Differentiate Equations which shapes the water inflows peaks as a Markov Diffusion Model. The methodologies are applied to hydroelectric plants of the Brazilian Hydroelectric System, determining different empty volumes. The impacts of these different empty volumes on the energy generation are evaluated throughout simulation studies. (AU)