The short-term hydropower generation scheduling (STHGS) is a complicated problem in the utilization of hydropower and water resources. An improved binary-coded whale optimization algorithm (IBWOA) is proposed in this paper to solve the complex nonlinear problem. The STHGS problem is divided into unit combination (UC) subproblem and economic load distribution (ELD) subproblem. For the UC subproblem, we use the sigmoid function (SF) to generate a binary array representing the start/stop state of the unit. The whale algorithm's search mechanism is optimized, and the inertia weight and perturbation variation strategy are introduced to improve the algorithm's optimization ability. Each generation solution is optimized by repairing the minimum uptime/downtime constraint and the spinning reserve capacity constraint. For ELD subproblem, the optimal stable load distribution table (OSLDT) is used to distribute the load quickly. The Mutation mechanism and the Locally balanced dynamic search mechanism compensate for the non-convex problems caused by start-stop constraints and stable optimal table methods. Finally, the proposal is applied to solve the STHGS of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. When the water head is 75 m,88 m, and 107 m, the minimum water consumption calculated by the IBWOA algorithm is 1,058,323,464 m³, 892,524,696 m³, and 745,272,216 m³, respectively. Compared with the traditional whale optimization algorithm, the water consumption of the IBOWA algorithm corresponding to 75 m, 88 m, and 107 m water heads is reduced by 0.76%, 0.26%, and 0.05%, respectively. The comparison between the IBWOA algorithm and other heuristic algorithms shows that the IBWOA has good feasibility and high optimization accuracy.

短期水力发电调度（STHGS）是水电和水资源利用中的一个复杂问题。为了解决复杂的非线性问题，本文提出了一种改进的二进制编码鲸鱼优化算法（IBWOA）。STHGS 问题分为单元组合（UC）子问题和经济负荷分配（ELD）子问题。对于 UC 子问题，我们使用 sigmoid 函数 (SF) 生成表示单元的开始/停止状态的二进制数组。优化鲸鱼算法的搜索机制，引入惯性权重和扰动变异策略，提高算法的优化能力。通过修复最小正常运行时间/停机时间约束和旋转备用容量约束来优化每一代解决方案。对于 ELD 子问题，最优稳定负载分配表（OSLDT）用于快速分配负载。Mutation机制和Locallybalanced动态搜索机制弥补了起止约束和稳定最优表方法导致的非凸问题。最后将该方案应用于三峡水电站STHGS的求解。当水头为75 m、88 m、107 m时，IBWOA算法计算出的最小用水量为1,058,323,464 m³、 892,524,696 m ³和 745,272,216 m ³。与传统鲸鱼优化算法相比，IBOWA算法对应75 m、88 m和107 m水头的耗水量分别降低了0.76%、0.26%和0.05%。IBWOA算法与其他启发式算法的对比表明，IBWOA算法具有较好的可行性和较高的优化精度。