Extracting the Operating Characteristics of Hydropower Plants Using a Clustering-based Efficient Methodology

To benefit from all advantages of a hydropower plant, seen as a renewable source, reliable and low cost of the injected electricity in the power grids, the Hydro Plant Operator (HPO) must ensure the optimal operating regimes and an efficient maintenance program. In this context, a clustering- based methodology has been proposed in the paper to determine the representative operating characteristics (ROCs) of a hydropower plant, considering time slices associated with each generating unit. The results have confirmed the performance of the proposed approach from the point of view of the computational time and the quality of partition obtained associated with the patterns of the operating characteristics. These patterns can represent the support offered to the HPO to provide for an optimal operating of a hydropower plant.