Comparison and evaluation of Hwacheon Reservoir’s hydropower generation ability before and after the Imnam Reservoir construction

Hwacheon Reservoir is located on the North Han River in South Korea.This reservoir was completed in 1944, and it is an important source of hydropower generation.Imnam Reservoir is located in North Korea upstream of the Hwacheon Reservoir.Construction of the Imnam Reservoir began in 1986, and was completed in 2001.According to the observed data, after the construction of the Imnam Reservoir, the amount of inflow to the Hwacheon Reservoir has been decreased.Due to the important role of the Hwacheon Reservoir in producing energy in South Korea, the optimization and comparison of its hydropower generation ability before and after the Imnam Reservoir construction has a special importance.So, for this purpose in this study, the HEC-ResPRM model was used.This model is a monthly model and it gives optimal values for release and storage by minimizing penalty functions.To evaluate the hydropower generation ability of Hwacheon Reservoir before and after the Imnan Reservoir construction, both the calculated inflow, which is without any effect of the Imnam Reservoir, and the observed inflow, which shows the effect of the Imnam Reservoir construction from 2001 to 2013, were used in the model.After running the model, the amount of release was optimized for both calculated and observed inflows.Finally, the results of the model for calculated and observed inflows were compared.The results of this study show that, after construction of the Imnam Reservoir, the amount of hydropower generation by the Hwacheon reservoir has decreased considerably.