Abstract
In this paper, we introduce an operational implementation of a hydropower simulator for cascaded river systems. It is presently used for decision support in the intraday re-planning by the largest hydropower producer in Norway. It simulates the hydro production at a highly detailed level with very fine time resolution. The outcome obtained in one time period will be immediately used to facilitate the calculation at the next time period. The continuous updating of the information within short intervals not only advances the convergence but also allows the simulator to capture nonlinear dynamics and state-dependency of the complex hydrological systems. Case studies illustrate the basic properties of the simulation algorithm and the role as a decision support tool in intraday re-planning. Numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the simulation model over the re-optimization, both in terms of precision and calculation time, when verifying whether a manual change in the dispatch plan can avoid spillage. © 2018 Power Systems Computation Conference.