Optimizing energy generation in short-term hydro unit commitment using efficiency points

In this article, we consider the Hydro Unit Commitment (HUC) problem arising at the Son La hydropower plant. This problem aims to minimize the total input power used to produce a given amount of electricity and satisfy the technological constraints of the turbines. The problem is divided into two phases: 1) estimating the unit efficiency function from the hill chart provided by the turbine’s manufacturer, and 2) determining the optimal unit commitment based on that function. An Epsilon-Support Vector Regression (ϵ-SVR) model is implemented to precisely approximate the nonlinear function of the unit efficiency in the first phase. The Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation utilizing this function with binary variables, which determines the target power used at each unit set up, is established in the second phase. The final results are compared to the usual cost incurred by the manual approach to determine the effectiveness of this model.