News

Operating hydro-electric power plants based on electricity market rates

27.06.2011

BKW FMB Energie AG, Berne, is optimising the operation of its hydro-electric power plants based on electricity market rates using a new software solution from ProCom.

Aside from the performance and flexibility, the individual customisation options were reasons for introducing the new optimisation solution on the basis of the BoFiT IT platform.

Recently, the Swiss electricity supplier is maximising its profits generated by the pump and turbine use of its eleven hydro-electric power plants with the software from the Aachen-based consulting firm, taking into account the electricity market rates and the inflows. Since the new optimisation solution has been integrated into the BKW business processes and is efficiently supporting them, BKW officials have been able to perform day-ahead planning as well as medium-term optimisation plans quickly and reliably based on solid data - for 53 weeks and for three years (at hourly rasters each). In addition, an interface with the ETRM (Energy Trading and Risk Management) software was created.

The BoFiT introduction was preceded by a feasibility study on the hydrological optimisation of the pumped storage hydropower system of the Oberhasli power station. In addition to the successful conduct of day-ahead calculations, there were also system services integrated into the optimisation, to allow the provision of primary, secondary as well as positive and negative tertiary control performances and their distribution to the different systems. "ProCom has successfully solved the design of this prototype. Therefore, we decided to use BoFiT for all our hydro storage and pumped storage power stations", explains Othmar Schuled, head of the Middle Office Trading at BKW FMB Energie AG.The Bernese energy company has already assigned further projects to ProCom.

For example, an optionality assessment of pumped storage power plants with price-forward curves and inflow scenarios is in preparation along with a day-ahead planning for a gas and steam turbine power station in Tamarete (Italy). Furthermore, both partners are working on a study on the "Creation forecast for run-of-river power plant groups by means of artificial neuronal networks".