Linear Programming and

Applications
(vi) Reservoir Operation and
Reservoir Sizing using LP

Water
1 Resources Planning and Management:
 Objectives
To formulate reservoir operation problem in the form

of LPP
To formulate reservoir sizing problem in the form of

LPP

2 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Reservoir Operation
 Reservoir operation policies - Enable the operator to take appropriate decision

 Reservoir operation policy indicates the amount of water to be released based

on the state of the reservoir, demands and the likely inflow to the reservoir
 The release from a single purpose reservoir can be done with the objective of

maximizing the benefits

 For multi-purpose reservoirs, there is a need to optimally allocate the releases

among purposes
 The simplest of the operation policies is the standard operation policy (SOP)

3 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Standard Operating Policy
 The standard operating policy (SOP) aims to meet the demand to the

maximum extent in each period based on the water availability in that

period.
 According to SOP, if the water available (storage, St+ inflow, It) at a

particular period is less than the demand Dt, then all the available water is
released
 If the available water is more than the demand but less than demand +

storage capacity K, then release is equal to the demand.

 If after releasing the demands, there is no space for extra water, then the

excess water is also released

4 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Standard Operating Policy…
 Along OA: Release = water
Graphical representation of SOP available; reservoir will be empty
after release.
C
 Along AB: Release = demand;
Release excess water is stored in the
reservoir (filling phase).
0
45  At A: Reservoir is empty after
A B
D
release.
 At B: Reservoir is full after release.
 Along BC: Release = demand +
O D D+K excess of availability over the
Available water = Storage
capacity (spill)
+ Inflow  The releases according to the SOP
 No insight about the scenarios of the future periods needinnot be optimum
a year
 The releases according to the SOP need not be optimum

5 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Derivation of optimal operating policy
using LP
 Consider a reservoir of capacity K.

 Optimization problem: To determine the releases Rt that optimize an objective

function satisfying all the constraints.

 Objective function can be a function of storage volume or release.
 Typical constraints in a

reservoir optimization model: Evaporation, EVt

 Conservation of mass and Release

Inflow, It
other hydrological and hydraulic (irrigation+ water

constraints Storage, St
supply), Rt

 Minimum and maximum storage and release Single reservoir operation

 Hydropower and water requirements

 Hydropower generation limits

6 Water Resources Planning and Management:
 Derivation of optimal operating policy using LP…
 Consider the objective of meeting the demands to the extent possible

i.e., maximizing the releases.

 The optimization model can be formulated as:
Rt 
Maximize
t
Subject to
(i) Hydraulic constraints as defined by the reservoir continuity equation

St+1 = St + It – EVt - Rt - Ot for all t

where Ot is the outflow
The constraints for outflow are
Ot = 0 if St + It – EVt - Rt ≤ K
= K – [St + It – EVt - Rt] if St + It – EVt - Rt > K

7 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Derivation of optimal operating policy using LP…

(ii) Reservoir capacity

St ≤ K – Kd for all t, where Kd is the dead storage

or simply St ≤ K
St ≥ 0 for all t.
(iii) Target demand

Rt ≤ D t for all t.
Rt ≥ 0 for all t.

Large LP problems can be solved very efficiently using LINGO - Language for
INteractive General Optimization, LINDO Systems Inc, USA

8 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Example
 Derive an optimal operating policy for a reservoir to meet a long-term

objective. Single reservoir operation with deterministic inflows. K = 400.

Evaporatio
t Inflows Demand
n
1 90.7 10 71.5
2 450.6 8 140.5
3 380.4 8 140.5
4 153.2 8 80.6
5 120 6 30.6
6 55 6 240.6
7 29.06 5 241.7
8 24.27 6 190.5
9 30.87 6 98.1
10 15.9 8 0
11 12.8 9 0
12 15.9 10 0

9 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Example…
Solution

Objective function:

Maximize R t
t

Subject to

St+1 = St + It – EVt - Rt - Ot for t = 1, 2, …, 12

where Ot is the outflow

Ot = 0 if St + It – EVt - Rt ≤ K

= K – [St + It – EVt - Rt] if St + It – EVt - Rt > K

St ≤ 400 ; St ≥ 0; Rt ≤ Dt ; Rt ≥ 0 for t = 1, 2, …, 12

10 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Example…
The problem is solved using LINGO and the solution is

t St It Dt Rt EVt St+1 Ot
1 17.6 90.7 71.5 71.5 10 26.8 0
2 26.8 450.6 140.5 140.5 8 328.9 0
3 328.9 380.4 140.5 140.5 8 400 160.8
4 400 153.2 80.6 80.6 8 400 64.6
5 400 120 30.6 30.6 6 400 83.4
6 400 55 240.6 240.6 6 208.4 0
7 208.4 29.06 241.7 232.21 5 0.25 0
8 0.25 24.27 190.5 18.27 6 0.25 0
9 0.25 30.87 98.1 25.12 6 0 0
10 0 15.9 0 0 8 7.9 0
11 7.9 12.8 0 0 9 11.7 0
12 11.7 15.9 0 0 10 17.6 0

11 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Example…
Rule curve derived is shown below:

12 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Reservoir Sizing
 In many situations, annual demand may be less than the total inflow to a

particular site.
 However, the time distribution of demand and inflows may not match

 Surplus in some periods and deficit in some other periods

 Hence, there is a need of storage structure i.e., reservoir to store water in

periods of excess flow and make it available when there is a deficit.

 In order to enable regulation of the storage to best meet the specified

demands, the reservoir storage capacity should be enough.

13 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Reservoir sizing…
 The problem of reservoir sizing involves determination of the required storage

capacity of the reservoir when inflows and demands in a sequence of periods

are given.

 Reservoir capacity can be determined using two methods:

Mass diagram method

Sequent peak algorithm method

14 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Mass diagram method
 Developed by W. Rippl (1883)

 Mass curve: Plot of the cumulative flow volumes as a function of time.

 Mass curve analysis - Graphical method called Ripple’s method

 It involves finding the maximum positive cumulative difference between a sequence

of pre-specified (desired) reservoir releases Rt and known inflows Qt.

 One can visualize this as starting with a full reservoir, and going through a sequence

of simulations in which the inflows and releases are added and subtracted from that
initial storage volume value.
 Doing this over two cycles of the record of inflows will identify the maximum deficit

volume associated with those inflows and releases. This is the required reservoir
storage.

15 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Mass diagram method…

Release rate

Time, t

Typical mass curve

16 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Sequent Peak Algorithm
 Computes the cumulative sum of differences between the inflows and reservoir

releases for all periods t over the time interval [0, T].
 Let Kt be the maximum total storage requirement needed for periods 1 through

period t and Rt be the required release in period t, and Qt be the inflow in that period

 Setting K0 equal to 0, the procedure involves calculating Kt using equation below for

up to twice the total length of record.

 Algebraically,
 Rt  Qt  K t 1 if positive
Kt  
0 otherwise
 The maximum of all Kt is the required storage capacity for the specified releases Rt

and inflows, Qt.

17 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Formulation of reservoir sizing using LP
 Linear Programming can be used to obtain reservoir capacity more elegantly by
considering variable demands and evaporation rates.
 The optimization problem is

Minimize Ka
where Ka is the active storage capacity
Subject to
Reservoir continuity equation
St+1 = St + It – EVt - Rt - Ot for all t
Reservoir capacity
St ≤ Ka for all t
ST+1 = St where T is the last period.
 Target demands R t ≥ Dt for all t.

18 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Storage Yield
 A complementary problem to reservoir capacity estimation can be done by

maximizing the yield.

 Firm yield is the constant (or largest) quantity of flow that can be released at

all times.
 It is the flow magnitude that is equaled or exceeded 100% of time for a

historical sequence of flows.

 Linear Programming can be used to maximize the yield, R (per period) from

a reservoir of given capacity, K.

19 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Storage Yield
The optimization problem can be stated as:

Maximize R

Subject to

Storage continuity equation

St+1 = St + It – EVt - Rt - Ot for all t

Reservoir capacity

St ≤ Ka for all t

ST+1 = St where T is the last period.

20 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Bibliography / Further Reading
1. Dennis T.L. and L.B. Dennis, Microcomputer Models for Management Decision
Making, West Publishing Company, 1993.
2. Loucks, D.P., J.R. Stedinger, and D.A. Haith, Water Resources Systems Planning and
Analysis, Prentice-Hall, N.J., 1981.
3. Mays, L.W. and K. Tung, Hydrosystems Engineering and Management, Water
Resources Publication, 2002.
4. Rao S.S., Engineering Optimization – Theory and Practice, Fourth Edition, John
Wiley and Sons, 2009.
5. Taha H.A., Operations Research – An Introduction, 8th edition, Pearson Education
India, 2008.
6. Vedula S., and P.P. Mujumdar, Water Resources Systems: Modelling Techniques and
Analysis, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2005.
7. Rippl., W., The capacity of storage reservoirs for water supply, Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers, 71:270 – 278.

21 Water Resources Planning and Management:

 Thank You

22Water Resources Planning and Management: