Authors: J.Huysentruyt, T. Olason, S. G. Bridgeman, R. B. Allen, P. Kirshen
Abstract
Acres is implementing a Decision Support System for New England Power (NEP). The system will be used to schedule long- and short-term generation and reservoir operations for the 15 plant, 1158 MW hydroelectric facilities in the Upper Connecticut River Basin. NEP is the wholesale generation and transmission company of New England Electric System (NEES). NEES is a member of the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) which dispatches the bulk power facilities of its member utilities as well as interpol transfers. There are over 100 participating members of NEPOOL that essentially comprise the entirety of the six New England states.
The NEP Decision Support System includes a long-term generation scheduler (LTGS) which is used to schedule operations for a period of up to two years and to determine the marginal value of storage. Those results are then used in the shortterm generation scheduler (STOS) to schedule hourly operations for a period of two weeks. The National Weather Service River Forecast model is used to forecast hourly natural inflows to the Connecticut River over both the short term period and for extended streamflow predictions (ESP).
The Decision Support System also includes a module for conducting analytic studies, such as relicensing studies and upgrade studies. This module is referred to as the Historic Simulator or HistSim. HistSim uses the optimization engines from the LTGS and STOS in a batch mode, which allows NEP to conduct long-term studies (10 to 20 years) of operations for different operating polices. HistSim has extensive reporting capabilities and includes a facility to compile Fishery Habitat indices for different parts of the Connecticut River.
