May 2009, Vista Newsletter

Click the images to enlarge	Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (NLH) Commissions ST Vista NLH is the primary generator of electricity in Newfoundland and Labrador. The company has an installed generating capacity of 1,635 MW. Over 80% of the energy supplied in 2008 was clean, hydroelectric generation. Hydro sells its power to utility, industrial and over 35,000 residential and commercial customers in over 200 communities across the province. On the Island system, NLH has nine hydro plants on six river systems with a total installed capacity of 958 MW, as well as 628 MW installed capacity in oil, gas and diesel plants. In addition, there is approximately 270 MW of hydro, 54 MW of thermal and 54 MW of wind generation on the system owned and operated by independent operators. Of the approximate 6000 GWh of energy supplied by NLH, about 76% comes from the hydro, 17% thermal and 7% in purchases. Long-term hydro-thermal coordination for NLH is a very unique problem, because of the long carry-over storage available, resulting in a 3-4 year drawdown cycle during a critical hydrologic sequence. Vista DSS^TM has previously provided NLH with a tool to perform hydro-thermal coordination over a long planning horizon (LT Vista). NLH has completed Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) for both ST Vista for hourly operations and Inflow Vista for inflow forecasting, and has approved the applications for production. In short-term scheduling at NLH, key issues involve balancing of generation between plants and river systems, as well as with third party generation, to meet island load. Vista DSS^TM provides NLH with an operational inflow forecasting model to forecast local inflow based on real-time weather data and forecasts. Short-term deterministic forecasts are made, as well as an ensemble of long-term forecasts. The short-term generation scheduler performs hourly optimization over a horizon up to two weeks, using the inflow forecast, and includes detailed representation of NLH’s generation resources and considers the contribution of other sources, including wind generation. The images to the above left show a typical short-term inflow forecast, a long-term ensemble forecast, as well as a short-term hourly generation schedule.

Click the images to enlarge

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (NLH) Commissions ST Vista

NLH is the primary generator of electricity in Newfoundland and Labrador. The company has an installed generating capacity of 1,635 MW. Over 80% of the energy supplied in 2008 was clean, hydroelectric generation. Hydro sells its power to utility, industrial and over 35,000 residential and commercial customers in over 200 communities across the province.

On the Island system, NLH has nine hydro plants on six river systems with a total installed capacity of 958 MW, as well as 628 MW installed capacity in oil, gas and diesel plants. In addition, there is approximately 270 MW of hydro, 54 MW of thermal and 54 MW of wind generation on the system owned and operated by independent operators.

Of the approximate 6000 GWh of energy supplied by NLH, about 76% comes from the hydro, 17% thermal and 7% in purchases.

Long-term hydro-thermal coordination for NLH is a very unique problem, because of the long carry-over storage available, resulting in a 3-4 year drawdown cycle during a critical hydrologic sequence. Vista DSS^TM has previously provided NLH with a tool to perform hydro-thermal coordination over a long planning horizon (LT Vista).

NLH has completed Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) for both ST Vista for hourly operations and Inflow Vista for inflow forecasting, and has approved the applications for production.

In short-term scheduling at NLH, key issues involve balancing of generation between plants and river systems, as well as with third party generation, to meet island load. Vista DSS^TM provides NLH with an operational inflow forecasting model to forecast local inflow based on real-time weather data and forecasts. Short-term deterministic forecasts are made, as well as an ensemble of long-term forecasts. The short-term generation scheduler performs hourly optimization over a horizon up to two weeks, using the inflow forecast, and includes detailed representation of NLH’s generation resources and considers the contribution of other sources, including wind generation.

The images to the above left show a typical short-term inflow forecast, a long-term ensemble forecast, as well as a short-term hourly generation schedule.