Flexible operation of tidal barrages for demand-matching generation: A case study in the La Rance power plant

Tidal barrage power plants use the difference in tidal elevation throughout the day to generate electrical power. The inner basin that these type of power plants have, combined with the slow variation of the tides, allow for an element of time-varying storage capacity compared to other more traditional renewable sources, such as wind and solar. This study focuses on exploiting the flexibility of tidal barrages to achieve a demand-following operation. Using the La Rance power plant as a case of study, and a typical residential demand curve, the optimal operation of a barrage is computed pursuing two different objectives: energy maximisation and demand matching. The resulting optimal control problem associated with each objective is solved using the moment-based control framework. Furthermore, a receding-horizon strategy is implemented, to account for the potential variability in the electrical demand, which presents a stochastic behaviour.