An Efficient Methodology for Reservoir Release Optimization Using Plant Propagation Algorithm

Abstract Water from the Reservoir is used for multiple purposes such as irrigation, hydropower generation, supply of drinking water, industrial purposes, management of fisheries, and flood control. Reservoir water should be utilized effectively in order to use water in an optimal fashion. Reservoir optimization is a continuous optimization problem which is also a NP-hard in nature. In this paper, nature inspired Plant Propagation Algorithm (PPA) is applied to perform Implicit Stochastic Optimization (ISO) for optimal release of water from the reservoir. PPA emulates the way in which the strawberry plant propagates. The search process of the plant is used to identify different optimal release patterns, the best maximal release with respect to varying storage and demand and also releasing water during dry months when there was no inflow. The study area chosen for this research work was Thirumurthi Reservoir located in Tiruppur district of Tamilnadu in India. The main purpose of this research work is to release water optimally in the normal months, so that water can be saved and can be utilized in the dry months. The results obtained in this research work were promising and shows that PPA offers a good scope for optimal release with available water in the reservoir, also by satisfying demand to a greater extent. Release patterns for varying inflow, storage and demand ranges were generated in this work using 5 years (2009 to 2013) of real time data collected from Thirumurthi reservoir, which could serve as a guideline for optimal reservoir release.