The paper presents a model-based control strategy for optimal asset management of hydroelectric units in run-of-river hydropower plants. The proposed control strategy aims to operate the unit at the best efficiency while improving water flow management and minimise components wear during frequency containment reserve provision. This approach is designed for a double regulated turbine (Kaplan) with adjustable guide vanes angle and runner blades angle and can be extended to other turbines adopted in run-of-river hydropower plants. The optimal discharge set-point is computed for maximising the frequency containment reserve provision while controlling the head of the river. The best efficiency is achieved by solving a suitably defined convex optimisation problem leveraging a regressive model of the hydraulic characteristics of the turbine and dynamics of the guide vanes and blades servomotors. The discharge set-point combines three terms: the dispatch plan set-point, the regulating discharge, proportional to the grid frequency deviation, and an offset term computed to control the average flow through the machine. Furthermore, a method to forecast the energy required in the following hour for the provision of grid frequency regulation is exploited to enhance the unit’s frequency containment reserve action. The control strategy is validated by simulating a month of operation for the full-scale run-of-river hydropower plant located in Vogelgrun (France) and by comparing the results with operational statistics. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy able to increase the provision of frequency containment reserve while decreasing the number of movements of the machine components and maximise the efficiency.

本文提出了一种基于模型的控制策略，用于对径流式水电站中的水电机组进行优化资产管理。建议的控制策略旨在以最佳效率运行机组，同时改善水流管理并在频率控制储备提供期间最大限度地减少组件磨损。这种方法是为具有可调导叶角度和转轮叶片角度的双调节涡轮机 (Kaplan) 设计的，可以扩展到径流式水力发电厂采用的其他涡轮机。计算最佳排放设定点，以在控制河头的同时最大限度地提供频率控制储备。最佳效率是通过利用涡轮机的液压特性和导叶和叶片伺服电机的动力学的回归模型来解决适当定义的凸优化问题来实现的。排放设定点结合了三项：调度计划设定点、与电网频率偏差成正比的调节排放，以及为控制通过机器的平均流量而计算的偏移项。此外，还开发了一种预测下一小时提供电网频率调节所需能量的方法，以增强机组的频率控制储备动作。通过模拟位于 Vogelgrun（法国）的全尺寸径流式水电站一个月的运行并将结果与​​运行统计数据进行比较，验证了控制策略。