Optimization of Revenue Generated by Hydro
Power Plant by Bat Algorithm(BA)
Shrey Gupta
Department of Computer Engineering
Delhi technological University
Delhi,INDIA
Email Id: shreygupta111@gmail.com
Abstract ±Electricity is prime driver of growth and has varied
range of uses spanning transportation,production of goods,
industries , domestic uses and many. In countries , like India , the
demand for electricity has always been more than the supply and
hence the country face power shortage. Electricity is generated by
non-renewable resources like coal , oil , fossil fuels , nuclear power
and natural gas and from renewable resources like wind
energy,hydroelectric power plants,biomass ,solar
energy,reservoirs.Hydroelectric power plants are major source of
electricity in india with presently installed capacity of 41,997.42
MW as on July 31, 2015 which is 15.22% of total electricity
generation in India. Hydroelectricity means production of
electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of
falling or flowing water. It is significant to optimize the revenue
generated by the hydroelectric power plant to meet the
implementation cost and for expansion of hydroelectric power
plants. A lot of research work has been done in optimization of
hydroelectric flow. In this paper, a new calibrated revenue
optimization model is developed with Multi-Objective Bat
Algorithm (MOBA) for hydro power plants . This model can be
used to increase the revenue generated by the hydroelectric flow
from the dam wih respect to given constraints in less time. Bat
Algorithm is the latest metaheuristic algorithm which is based on
the behaviour of bats . Bat Algorithm has received increased
attention in many research fields recently.Bat algorithm based
optimization model can predict the flow of water through turbine
in hydroelectric power plant in order to maximize the revenue.
Keywords ± Application of bat-algorithm ; Bat algorithm;
electricity production ; hydroelectric flow ; Optimization ; revenue
maximization.
I. INTRODUCTION
The Economically optimal design of hydro power plant by
maximizing revenue and minimizing cost and power loss has
been known for a long time. However, these models are not
fully optimized due to pronounced complexity of hydro power
plant and its optimization model. In the recent years several
optimization techniques have emerged including evolutionary
methods that have proved great significance in optimization
problems where it was difficult to apply mathematical analysis
due to the entanglement of the problem.Hydro power plant
revenue optimization is an optimization problem. Authors [1]
proposed an optimization model for hydro power plant
978-9-3805-4421-2/16/$31.00 2016
c IEEE
Kapil Sharma
Department of Computer Engineering
Delhi technological University
Delhi,INDIA
Email Id: kapil@ieee.org
optimization by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) to
maximize the benefit cost ratio.In this model ,Author had made
certain modifications to cost data and design parameters and
used PSO,an optimization tool,which is a metaheuristic
algorithm that provides a population based search.Different
optimisation algorithms have different performances in
different type of problems [2].
Bat Algorithm was formulated by Author [3] for continuous
constrained optimization problems.In comparison to other
metaheuristic algorithms like particle swarm optimization ,
genetic algorithms and Harmony Search , Bat Algorithm is
proven to be potentially more powerful and it delivers most
optimized solutions.Thus,making use of Bat Algorithm to
optimize the revenue generation of hydro power plant is the
most optimized technique to deliver great results in short
time.Bat Algorithm is an evolutionary strategy based on the
echolocation behaviour of the bats. In this method,a number of
bats are initialised with random values which then find the best
among them and on the principal of the survival of the
fittest,the most fit bat is selected for evolution and hence
converges towards the better solution in each evolution
(iteration) and hence optimising the result.Randomly allocation
of values to the parameters of the bats give the advantage of
bats' travelling through every possible optimized solution,thus
always giving the most optimized solution.
In this model,we have optimized the revenue generated by
hydro power plant by the flow of water from the dam to run the
turbines which generates hydroelectricity.Overflow water is
carried through spill flow lines.The prices of electricity varies
with time,thus generating more electricity at the time of higher
prices will lead to higher revenue . We have implemented this
model which tells at what time how much water should go
through turbines and how much should go through spillway.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors [4] has studied artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm
and presented that ABC is well suited for cluster analysis,
constrained problem optimization, structural optimization, and
expert system. ABC has played important role in medical, MRI
image classification, face recognition, bioinformatics etc. ABC
is also an metaheuristic algorithm based on the behavior of
3576
honey bees in their colony and has evolutionary working
strategy,hence useful for optimization problems.Optimization
techniques are highly required in almost every problem domain
to achieve best results in least time. Authors [5] has proposed
Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA) to
estimate the parameters of cost estimation. models and to
determine which cost estimation model gives best results based
on the Least Square Estimation fitting technique [6]. These
models can be used further to solve various optimisation
problem. Author [7] and author [8] had discussed the
importance of hydroelectricty as a renewable alternative for
electricity generation and various constraints on the model
including the variations in water flow,regulation of turbines and
various researches so far.They have also discussed the control
model for hydroelectric energy-value optimization that
focusses on the the load on the turbines and hourly sequence of
flow of water.
The process of hydroelectricity generation has evolved over
years resulting in large amount of hydroelectricity being
produced at very low costs.It has evolved from running the
turbine by water to produce electric spark in the air between
two conductors producing a light to a dynamo connected to a
turbine in a flour mill providing street lighting to hydro power
plants to produce high amounts of power that can be stored and
transmitted to longer distances. Bat-Algorithm can be used to
optimize the results of turbine based energy production model
[9].
Bat Algorithm is easy to implement and superior in terms of
accuracy and efficiency compared to other algorithms.It has
good convergence property and results shows that it is better in
quality of solution than PSO and other metaheuristic
algorithms.This algorithm is capable of finding the feasible
solution near global optimal solution with less computation
cost [10], [11].
III. BAT ALGORITHM
Bat-inspired algorithm(BA) is a meta
heuristic optimization algorithm developed by Xin-She Yang in
2010.Bat algorithm is based on the echolocation behaviour
of micro bats with varying pulse rates of emission and loudness
[12].Following are the idealised rules of the bat algorithm-
1. All bats are able to identify their preys or objects by
echolocation.This echolocation helps them to sense
distance between the object and the bat.
BA iteratively finds the optimal solution of the target problem
through a guided search (i.e., the movements of a number of
bats) over the solution space, by using fitness function and
evolving bats. K bats are applied to find the optimal solution in
a solution space.Multi-Objective Bat algorithm is used to keep
in consideration various factors,functions and constraints.Bat
Algorithm is a highly efficient algorithm with remarkable
results.Recent researches have proved the superiority of Bat-
Algorithm over other metaheuristic algorithms like Simulated
Annealing (SA),Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) , Genetic
Algorithm (GA)[13]. Bat Algorithm can be hybridised with
other algorithms like COCOMO-BAT Algorithm,which can
reduce the errors significantly [14].Most real-world engineering
optimization problems are nonlinear with complex
constraints.BA has been tested against eight non-linear
optimisation tasks which served as the benchmark and BA
showed excellent results,better than other metaheuristic
algorithms [15].
x Initialize the parameters (pulse frequency (f) ,pulse rate(r)
and loudness(A)).
x Initialize the positions of K Bats(Randmly)
x For the construction-step index n = 1 : N,
ʹ For the Bat index k = 1 : K,
ʹ Consecutively update the position of K-th bat.
ʹ Select a solution among the best solutions.
ʹ Create new solutions(evolution) by moving bats randomly
or around the best selected solution.
x Different weights are assigned to different functions and
then above process is carried out.Make the final solution
decision according to the selected bats' positions.
Fig. 1. Steps in the Bat-optimization model
IV. FORMULATION OF THE HYDROELECTRIC FLOW
OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM
The objective of hydroelectric flow optimization for electric
power generation is to schedule the committed generating unit
outputs so as to generate the maximum revenue while
satisfying all units and operational constraints of the power
system. The hydroelectric flow problem is a constrained
optimization problem and it can be mathematically expressed
as follows:
1. The empirical equation for the turbine, and relates the
electricity produced to the turbine flow and reservoir level
2. %DWV À\ UDQGRPO\ ZLWK YHORFLW\ YL DW SRVLWLRQ [L
turbineFlow( t  1) *
ª k1 * ( Storage(t )  Storage(t  1))  k º
ZLWKD¿[HGIUHTXHQF\IPLQDQGYDULHVZDYHOHQJWKȜ Electricty (t )
¬« ¼»
2
2
and loudness A to search for prey. They can
automatically adjust the wavelength (or frequency) of 2. The reservoir storage level as a function of the flow into and
their emitted pulses and adjust the rate of pulse out of the reservoir.
emission r ‫[ א‬0,1], depending on the proximity of their Storage ( t ) Storage ( t  1)  't * >inFlow(t  1)  spillFlow (t  1)  turbineFlow( t  1) @
target; 3.Revenue generation.
3. We can generally keep the loudness(A) and rate of
pulse emission constant,after tuning to attain best
revenue ¦  turbineFlow(i ) * price(i ) 
solution.
Where t : time,

2016 International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom) 3577
 k1 , k 2 :constants VI. RESULTS AND COMPARISONS
Water can leave the reservoir either through the spillway or via We ran our system on various sizes of test cases and it was
the turbine. Water that leaves through the turbine is used to observed that Bat-Algorithm based optimized solution is faster
generate electricity. We can sell this electricity at prices that are than other solution,giving the similar profit optimization. In
determined by various market factors. We control the rates at optimization problems,we need find an alternative with the
which water flows through the spillway and the turbine. Our most cost effective or highest achievable performance under
goal is to find values for these rates that will maximize revenue the given constraints, by maximizing desired factors and
over the long term. minimizing undesired ones. In comparison, maximization
Constraints: Certain constraints need to be taken into means trying to attain the highest or maximum result or
consideration. Both the reservoir level and downstream flow outcome without regard to cost or expense.In this paper we
rates must remain within specified ranges. The maximum level have made use of bat-algorithm in order to solve hydroelectric
of flow that the turbine can handle is set, but the spillway level flow optimization problem by increasing the revenue and
is unrestricted. Additionally, the reservoir level at the end of minimising the the computation time.It is interesting to note
the simulation must be the same as the level at the start of the that the bat-algorithm doesn't give the same solution on every
simulation. The power plant will continue to operate beyond run due to its characteristics of randomly searching bats with
the period for which we are optimizing, so we need to prevent random velocity in every iteration ,which makes it relatively
the solver from finding a solution that empties the reservoir. better method to solve such problems.Due to randomisation,it
is able to cover all local minima/maxima,hence finding the best
solutions in the solution space.The following table shows the
V. SYSTEM MODEL comparisons :
We have used Multi-Objective Bat Algorithm(MOBA)in
MATLAB.Our algorithm contains following steps: Decision Non-linear method Bat-algorithm
x We have taken two objective function,1.Total waterinlet variables (fmincon)
and outlet;2.Total revenue generated.These function are
Time Revenue Time Revenue
assigned weights sequentially and then the BA is called for
(sec) (Rs) (sec) (Rs)
each set of weights.
x BA parameters(population size,number of 50 71.85 2349.7 27.73 2352
generations,loudness,pulse rate) are set in accordance to 100 268.26 4311 121.3 4155
maximise the result.
x The results are maximised when there is nill spill flow and
complete turbine flow to generate hydroelectricity.Cost
function computes for each bat and the best solution's bat
is selected to evolve for next generation.
x Under the constraints ,like Max change in Turbine and
Spill Flow < 500 CFS, each dimension of the bat is
qualified by the previous dimension,hence one dimension
is computed at a time.
x Finally the best bat of last generation is choosen for the
solution.
FLOW CHART

Fig. 2. Solution by non-linear method

a) Shows the prices of water with respect to time.
b) Shows the solution,that is,the amount of water that should run through
turbine with respect to time.

3578 2016 International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom)

Fig. 3. Solution by Bat-Algorithm method
a) Shows the prices of water with respect to time..
b) Shows the solution,that is,the amount of water that should run through
turbine with respect to time.
Fig. 4. Alternate solution by Bat-Algorithm method
a) Shows the prices of water with respect to time..
b) Shows the solution,that is,the amount of water that should run through
turbine with respect to time.
Fig. 5. Results of large-scale optimization problem solved with quadprog.
Top left: variations in the price of electricity over the time period; bottom
left: optimal flow rates for turbine flow and spillway flow; top right: total
revenue from electricity sold over the time period; bottom right: total
volume of water stored in the reservoir over the time period
2016 International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom)
The above plots of the Bat-algorithm shows that there can be
many possible solutions to an optimization problem,and bat
algorithm is capable enough to find them.Though both the
above solution are generating the optimal revenue
approximately,but the computation time is significantly
different.The time taken by the non-linear model is constant,but
the time taken by bat-algorithm can be changed and optimized
by tuning its parameter.In above illustrations,it is clear that bat
algorithm is way faster than non-linear model,it can become
more fast by tuning the parameters further.The main objective
of this paper is to show that bat-algorithm can be employed
easily in varied ranges of problems ,like optimization problems,
car side problem,mathematical problem,engineering design
problems etc., and it provides significant solutions that are
widely acceptable.It takes relatively very less time to span
through the solution space and generate best solution.It
provides better scope to accomodate wide number of
constraints and different objectives.This model,hence,is reliable
and useful.
VII. CONCLUSION
Optimization problems in engineering often concerns multiple
objective,hence the problem is called multi-objective
optimization problem,for which multi-objective bat
algorithm(MOBA) is used.Different objectives often conflict
each other,and hence true optimal solution doesn't exist.In such
situations some tradeoffs and approximations are often
needed.Multi objective bat algorithm has the capability to
consider all the objectives,span through all the best possible
solutions in little time and generate the optimal solution.As no
solution is a true solution in this case,hence bat algorithm tends
to provide different solution,giving the same optimal result.The
bat algorithm is a pwerful tool for the problem solver as it
provide the power to solver to accomodate all the constraints
and conditions .Proper parmeter tuning can optimize the
solution further.Bat algorithm has the future scope to develop
hybrid algorithm and optimize present algorithms,which can be
highly useful in data centric problem to solve them in less
time.There are also several models that are used for a particular
problem and give the best and most optimized solution.But
those solutions are difficult to be expanded and reused for other
problems.Unlike those,bat algorithm can be employed in vast
ranges of problems. If we can properly control the parameter in
accordance to the problem,if we can make the search faster and
move the bats towards the required solution at a faster rate,then
number of iteration would reduce manifolds and hence
optimising the solution further.Therefore bat algorithm is a
promising technique to solve optimization problem with high
accuracy and less time.
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3580 2016 International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom)