| Management of water resources has become more complex in recent years as a result of changing attitudes towards sustainability and the attribution of greater attention to environmental issues, especially under a scenario of water scarcity risk introduced by climate changes and anthropogenic pressures. This thesis addresses the conflicts in optimizing multi-purpose hydropower operations under an environment where objectives are often conflicting and uncertain. Mathematical programming formulations can be used to achieve flexible, feasible and optimal operation and planning solutions to satisfy expectations of multiple stake-holders, including regulatory environmental compliance and sustainability. Innovative optimization models using MINLP with binary variables, fuzzy set theory, partial constraint satisfaction and multi-objective formulations incorporating unit commitment problem and adaptive real-time operations are developed and applied to a real life case study. These methodologies provide advances and valuable insights on optimal operations of hydropower systems under uncertain decision making environments. |
