DEVELOPMENT WORK FOR THE NIAGARA GENERATING SYSTEM
by
I. Corbu¹, H. North¹, K. Lacivita¹

ABSTRACT

Ontario Hydro and the New York Power Authority operate a large hydroelectric power generating system in the Niagara Region. The system has an installed capacity of approximately 4,500 MW and is operated in accordance with the provisions of the 1950 Treaty between Canada and USA Concerning the Diversion of the Niagara River.
The paper briefly describes the Niagara River and the characteristics of its generating system and provides an overview of the extensive development work currently underway for its real time operation. This work consists of the development of software packages for flow forecasting, river channel routing, reservoir regulation, on-line monitoring and warning, and after-the-fact reporting. These models use a variety of systems analysis techniques and the paper provides an overview of the macro design of their application to the operation of the Niagara Generating System.


INTRODUCTION

In view of the importance of the Niagara Generating System to both Ontario Hydro (OH) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the two agencies have gradually embarked on what has become a significant development effort to improve the operation of the system by introducing state-of-the-art computing techniques at the Niagara River Control Centre (NRCC).
NRCC reports to both power utilities and is responsible for monitoring the Niagara River flows and for implementing the economic operating decisions made at OH's and NYPA's control centres in compliance…