Long-Term Reversible Hydropower System Operation Optimization Based on Fast Unit Commitment

To address the urgent demand for large-scale energy storage in renewable energy transition of China, this study proposes a schematic of reversible hydropower system and its long-term operation optimization model. By employing Fast Unit Commitment (FUC) algorithm, the model effectively reduces computational complexity while maintaining accuracy. Case studies demonstrate that the proposed method takes 1,000 times less time compared to nonlinear programming methods. With cascade reservoirs retrofitted into reversible hydropower stations, wind and solar curtailment rates decrease by 93.83% and 88.72<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">%</sup>, respectively, leading an annual profit increase of 0.47 billion CNY. These results show the algorithm's efficiency and the retrofit's economic benefit, providing critical insights for enhancing renewable integration in high-penetration grids.