Operations Models for Central Valley Project

Abstract

System optimizing procedures are being developed for on-line use in the operation of the Central Valley Project (CVP), a complex multiple objective water resource system, in California. The project is subject to requirements and interagency agreements. A practical optimization method must address not only these requirements but also the continuing needs of day-to-day operation, and the necessity for interposing the project managers in monitoring and final decision roles. The basic technical difficulty with an optimizing algorithm for a complex water resource system is the dimensionality which can easily run into the tens of thousands of decision variables and constraints. The method being developed for the project provides the necessary decomposition and involves the project managers, assisted by an integrated group of multiple policies based on interconnected monthly, daily, and hourly models, using iterated linear programming-dynamic programming techniques.