Reservoir Operation by Linear and Dynamic Programming

The operation of reservoirs often requires frequent updating of the results of the operation model. This is mainly because of errors involved in forecasting the natural inflows to the reservoirs or demands for water and energy or both. Current models used for operation usually require the use of large computers because of their core‐storage and computation‐time requirements. Frequent use of such models for the purpose of updating will often result in high computation cost and usually involves long turnaround times. This paper presents an efficient algorithm for the monthly operation of a system of two parallel multipurpose reservoirs that is solved with a minicomputer. The operation model is applied to Shasta and Folsom reservoirs of the California Central Valley Project, and the results are reviewed.