Dygnsreglering av småskalig vattenkraft i Jädraån

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this project was to investigate the viability of daily production planning of the small-scale hydropower plants owned by Småkraft AB in Jädraån. In order to achieve this a number of characteristics of the river and the power plants first had to be estimated. This included the size of the reservoirs located by the power plants as well as the efficiency profiles of the power plants. The above data was combined with already available information regarding the head, peak power production, maximum discharge and flow times between the power plants. A model of the river and the included power plants was then developed using Matlab and Simulink. In the model the reservoir levels by the power plants are directed towards different levels during different hours of the day, depending on when electricity prices are the highest. Data that can be inserted into the model includes river runoff and electricity prices. The model can then be used to evaluate the best way to operate the power plants under certain conditions. For this project, the model was then used to evaluate different modes of operation for three different runoff schemes. The electricity prices that the operation was evaluated for were the average hourly prices during 2022. The model was also used to examine the potential benefits of increasing the maximum discharge at one of the power stations. The evaluation found that moving production to hours with higher electricity prices enables an increase in revenue of about 7-14% depending on the present water flows. There are however many uncertainties involved in the modelling and physical tests would be required to validate the results. No clear benefits of increasing the maximum discharge were found.