Optimal Power Scheduling of Hydropower with Co-Located Floating Solar and Wind Generation Using Stochastic Weight Tradeoff Chaotic Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

The increased use of solar and wind power generation worldwide has elevated the frequency and voltage regulation concerns due to their intermittent nature. Installing floating solar PV panels (FPV) and wind (WT) farms, at the same location as hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), should present a much cheaper option than using a battery storage. However, the operating strategy for the new co-located power plant needs to be revised from the conventional HPP operation. Hence, a novel optimal power scheduling strategy for co-located FPV-WT-HPP power plant using stochastic weight tradeoff chaotic particle swarm optimization (SWTC-PSO) is proposed in this paper. The objective is to either maximize the upper reservoir water or minimize the spill water. Test results obtained on the system with five major HPPs, two thermal, and one combined-cycle power plants ascertain that the proposed method can generate a significant amount of reservoir water saving up to 30%, which can later be used in the high demand period. The solar and wind energy penetration can be increased by up to 28% without disturbing frequency and voltage regulation using the co-located approach. Finally, the proposed modified HPP controller that uses the feedback signals from FPV and WT, can smooth out the combined co-located plant power output, leading to a dispatchable and firm power generation solution.