Optimal operation of single-reservoir system of Dez dam using charged system search algorithm

Nowadays, water scarcity is a major challenge for our country, Iran. Therefore, storage and optimal operation of limited resources, including water stored in dam's reservoirs, is one of the issues of interest for researchers in the field of water resources. In this paper,optimization of single-reservoir operation problem is solved by using one of the newest heuristic algorithms, named charged system search algorithm. Generally, this algorithm is based onthe electrostatics laws to determine the quantity of resultant force. At the first time, Kaveh and Talataheri (2010) proposed this algorithm and examined its capabilities for solving engineering problems and sample functions. The results showed that the algorithm has a good performance. Therefore, its use for solving engineering optimization problems is recommended. However, a review of literature shows that the use of this algorithm is very limited in the field of water resource engineering.
In this paper, the simple and hydropower operation of Dez reservoir, over 5 and 20 yearly operation time period are solved using the proposed algorithm. In order to solve these problems, two different formulations are proposed considering water release or storage volume as decision variables of the problem in the first and second formulation, respectively, and the results are compared to other available methods.
Comparison of the results shows the capability of the proposed algorithm, in which the results of first formulation are better than the second one’s. In other words, the results of first formulation for solving simple operation problem over 5 and 20 years are reduced 11.29% and 16.69% in comparison with the results of second formulation and also using first formulation for solving hydropower problem the results are improved 20.06% and 37.66%. Furthermore, the results of proposed algorithm for solving simple operation problem over 5 and 20 years are reduced 33.64% and 74.97% in comparison with the results of particle swarm optimization and also using proposed algorithm for solving hydropower problem the results are improved 6.53% and 41.48%. In addition, the results of proposed algorithm for solving simple operation problem over 5 and 20 years are reduced 7.79% and 35.59% in comparison with the results of genetic algorithm and also using proposed algorithm for solving hydropower problem the results are improved 11.32% and 67.43%.
Investigating these results with the results obtained using other existing algorithms indicates a better performance of charged system search algorithm for solving the reservoir operation optimization problem. According to these results, the use of this algorithm is recommended for solving other problems in the field of water engineering.