(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999)
Georgakakos, Konstantine P.; Yao, Huaming; Brumbelow, James Kelly; Bourne, Stephen; De Marchi, Carlo; Mullusky, Mary; Artan, Guleid A.; Sperfslage, Jason A.; Georgakakos, Aristidis P.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995-04)
Georgakakos, Aristidis P.; Yao, Huaming; Yu, Yongqing
In North America, hydropower provides a significant portion
of the electrical capacity, ranging from about 60 percent in
Canada, to more than 30 percent in Mexico, to about 13 percent
in the U.S. (North America Hydroelectric Research and
Development Forum, 1992). Among the attractive features of
hydropower is that it is renewable, clean, efficient, economical.,
and domestically produced. In the U.S., the amount of
hydroelectric production is equivalent to nearly 500 million
barrels of oil annually, which, at today's oil prices, have a value
of $9 billion. In addition to meeting electricity demands,
hydropower facilities play a critical role in water management,
helping to provide flood control and water for irrigation,
municipal and industrial uses, navigation, recreation, and fish
and wildlife preservation.
Improving the way projects are operated is a top research need.
It is worth noting that a 1 percent increase in the efficiency of
existing hydro plants in the U.S. would provide an additional 3
billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving the
equivalent of 1.4 million tons of coal or 4.9 million barrels of oil
(North American Hydroelectric Research and Development
Forum, 1992).
The primary motivations for this research work are (1) to
demonstrate that modem optimization methods can effectively
optimize the utilization of hydropower facilities and (2) compare
the relative performance of optimization and the more traditional
simulation models. In this article, we take up the first task and
describe the problems addressed, the models developed, and the
results obtained. The second task will be the subject of a panel
discussion.