POLICY ITERATION DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING APPLIED TO RESERVOIRS CONTROL

The paper is concerned with methods for operating reservoir systems in an optimal fashion. Although the value iteration technique is computationally good in determining a minimum total operating cost it can be difficult to isolate the associated optimal policy. When the optimal policy is under specific consideration it is sometimes useful to use a policy iteration technique despite its poorer computational performance. This paper demonstrates how a policy iteration technique can be applied to the reservoir operation problem. An example of a two-reservoir system is presented which contrasts the value-and policy-iteration techniques and demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of each.