Weekly planning of hydropower in systems with large volumes and varying power generation: A literature review

Hydropower is the world’s largest source of renewable electricity generation and hydropower plants with reservoirs provide flexibility to the power systems. Efficient planning techniques improve the flexibility of the power systems and reduce carbon emissions, which is needed in power systems exposed to a rapid change. Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, are increasing in the power systems. Hydropower plants have low operating costs and are used as base power. This paper reviews hydropower planning in different time frames and specifically focuses on weekly planning, i.e. hydropower planning for 1 to 3 weeks. Main conclusions in this study are that the term weekly planning is seldom used and the definitions in earlier studies of short term, mid term and long term planning, respectively, varies. The authors propose that weekly planning should belong to mid term planning.