Managing the cooling capacity of the upper rhine: A case study

In most industrialized countries, environmental standards exist which prescribe the maximum allowable man-made increase in water temperature of a river. Together with flowrate and weather conditions, these standards determine the rate at which waste heat may be discharged into a river at any moment. Power generating stations with variable cooling systems can adjust their heat discharge into the river in compliance with environmental standards and by doing so exert an influence on power generation capacity. In this paper, a scheme is developed that allows a chain of power stations discharging into the same river to operate their cooling systems such that the output of total electricity is maximized and water temperature standards are accomodated. The optimum balance between stations is determined through dynamic programming. From the results of a simulation model using historical data, simple decision rules for day-to-day operation are abstracted. These rules are based solely on the river flow rates at each power station.