Authors: A. Robitaille, L. Audette, G. Franc
Abstract
Vista Decision Support System (DSS) was implemented for Brascan Powers New York hydro system (formerly Reliant Energy) located in Northern New York State in 2003/2004. This paper describes the challenges to successfully implement Vista. The paper presents a brief description of all the DSS modules and outlines the input data quality analysis and validation methodology. The importance of historical operational, hydrological and weather data series analysis is highlighted due to the ability to identify the inadequacies and how they can lead to important operational issues such as erroneous efficiency curves or obstructed orifice gates. A detailed description of both the inflow forecast and the generation scheduling tools is presented, including the calibration process and the testing. Recommendations to ensure an efficient and safe transition from legacy scheduling methods to the new system are included.
