A short-term scheduling for a hydropower plant chain

An optimal control of a hydropower plant chain is introduced. The aim is to meet a predefined power demand and in the same time provide sufficient control capabilities. At first a state-space model of the river chain is presented. Then an optimal feedback control method is developed by introducing Hamiltonian for the system. The constraints are considered using Lagrangian multipliers. As an example a river bed with eight hydro plants is studied. The results show the suitability of the method to production planning and to analysis of the hydro system behaviour. It can also be used for on-line scheduling.