TITLE:  Stochastic Optimization Applied to Hydropower Scheduling

ABSTRACT:

Hydropower producers rely on stochastic optimization in their daily scheduling of resources. Due to uncertainties in future inflow to reservoirs and market prices, stochastic optimization models often proves to outperform their deterministic and heuristic counterparts. In this presentation the combined SDP/SDDP methodology widely used by Nordic producers will be described. We discuss how both changes in power market design as well as the future generation mix in Europe introduces new challenges to this methodology. In particular it will be of higher importance for the methodology to capture the exact unit commitment of generators and to incorporate the uncertainty in multiple price processes.