Author(s)

I. Raupp, F. Costa & J. Damázio

Abstract

The Brazilian Power System is a hydrothermal system characterized by large reservoirs arranged in complex cascades over several river basins. The Brazilian Water Resource Policy determines that water resource management has to provide multiple use of water. Thus, the System Operation Planning should consider the use of part of the hydro plants reservoirs’ volumes as flood control volumes for attenuation of possible floods, avoiding damage to downstream areas. The use of reservoir volumes for electricity generation and flood control is conflicting since the first use attempts to keep the reservoirs as full as possible and the second one attempts to keep part of it empty at the same period. As a result, some years, when the end of the rainy season inflows are low, the reservoirs may not end the season completely filled. To address this problem, this paper presents a methodology that changes the flood control volumes before the end of the rainy season according to hydrological information. The methodology proposed was tested in a Brazilian river basin to check its applicability and effectiveness. Keywords: flood control, reservoir’s operation, operation planning.

Keywords

flood control, reservoir’s operation, operation planning