The Hydropower—Power Guide Curve rule allows you to define a function that describes the hydropower generation requirement with respect to the available storage in the power pool. The power pool is defined by identifying two top-of-zone curves—one that marks the top power pool and one that marks the bottom.
The power requirement must be described in units of percent of plant factor. Plant factor is a fraction of the capacity of the plant to generate; so, percent plant factor is a percentage of the capacity of the plant to generate. Plant factor can also be interpreted to mean the fraction (or percentage) of the day the plant generates at full capacity. Thus, a plant factor of .25 (or 25%) may mean that the plant generates at 25% of capacity all day long, or the plant generates at full capacity for 25% of the day (or 6 hrs a day). No matter how you phrase it, this specification is a quantity of energy in MWHs. How the plant actually generates is a function of the power generation pattern.
Figure: Hydropower - Power Guide Curve Rule Editor
Zone at Top of Power Pool—select the zone whose top of zone curve will define the top of the power pool.
Zone at Bottom of Power Pool—select the zone whose top of zone curve will define the bottom of the power pool.
Power Guide Curve table. The table in the Power Guide Curve rule editor represents the relationship between storage and the hydropower generation requirement. The first column, the independent variable, is the percent of storage available in the power pool. These values should increase as you move down in the table (monotonically increasing). The second column is the plant factor (in units of percent); this is the power requirement as a percentage of the plant's capacity to generate (or the percent of the day the plant should generate at full capacity). The thumbnail plot will display the data in the table.
Power Generation Pattern—use this button to open the Power Generation Pattern editor which is described in detail in "Power Generation Pattern".
