Trans-regional transmission of large-scale hydropower: problems and solutions in receiving power grid

Large-capacity hydropower transmission from southwestern China to load centers via ultra-high voltage direct current(UHVDC) or ultra-high voltage alternating current(UHVAC) transmission lines is an important measure of the accommodation of large-scale hydropower in China. The East China Grid(ECG) is the main hydropower receiver of the west–east power transmission channel in China. Moreover, it has been subject to a rapidly increasing rate of hydropower integration over the past decade. Currently, large-scale outer hydropower is one of the primary ECG power sources. However, the integration of rapidly increasing outer hydropower into the power grid is subject to a series of severe drawbacks. Therefore, this study considered the load demands and hydropower transmission characteristics for the analysis of several major problems and the determination of appropriate solutions. The power supply-demand balance problem, hydropower transmission schedule problem, and peakshaving problem were considered in this study. Correspondingly, three solutions are suggested in this paper, which include coordination between the outer hydropower and local power sources, an inter-provincial power complementary operation, and the introduction of a market mechanism. The findings of this study can serve as a basis to ensure that the ECG effectively receives an increased amount of outer hydropower in the future.

A Two-Stage Approach for Large-Scale Cascaded Hydropower System Operations

The paper presents a two-stage approach to cope with the long-term optimal operation of cascaded hydropower systems. This approach combines progressive optimality algorithm (POA) with quadratic programming (QP) to improve the optimization results. POA is used at the first stage to generate a local optimal result, which will be selected as the initial feasible solution of QP method employed at the second stage. Around the initial solution, a rational local search range for QP method is then determined, where the nonlinear water level function and tailrace level function can be linearized nearly with high accuracy. The simplified optimization problem is formulated as a QP model with a quadratic generation function and a linear set of constraints, and solved using the available mathematic optimization software package. Simulation is performed on the long term operation of Hongshui River hydropower system which is located in southwest China and consists of 9 built hydropower plants. Results obtained from the proposed approach show a significant increase in the total energy production compared to the results from POA.

A modular parallelization framework for power flow transfer analysis of large-scale power systems

Power flow transfer(PFT) analysis under various anticipated faults in advance is important for securing power system operations. In China, PSD-BPA software is the most widely used tool for power system analysis, but its input/output interface is easily adapted for PFT analysis,which is also difficult due to its computationally intensity.To solve this issue, and achieve a fast and accurate PFT analysis, a modular parallelization framework is developed in this paper. Two major contributions are included. One is several integrated PFT analysis modules, including parameter initialization, fault setting, network integrity detection, reasonableness identification and result analysis.The other is a parallelization technique for enhancing computation efficiency using a Fork/Join framework. The proposed framework has been tested and validated by the IEEE 39 bus reference power system. Furthermore, it has been applied to a practical power network with 11052 buses and 12487 branches in the Yunnan Power Grid ofChina, providing decision support for large-scale power system analysis.