I have added hydro generators to my network, but my model doesn’t select them to generate power (even though they’re priced lower than the natural gas). I’ve set the PMAX and RATEDS for each hydro generator. Aside from these values, what is the minimal amount of information I need to put in to get the hydro generators to function as if they always have their maximum capacity available at each time step? I think I could model them using NG generators, but just want to make sure I’m not missing anything first.
Did you use the HGEN object type to define your hydro generators? If so, it’s possible that there is some property related to the associated HYDP object(s) that is preventing them from generating. Note that all HGEN and PHSTR objects have associated HYDP objects (similar to the FGEN-FUEL relationship).
My advice to you is to use HGEN and/or PHSTR objects if you are interested in explicitly modeling reservoir water levels and flows. If not, the XGEN object should be fine for modeling hydro (or the ESTR object for pumped-hydro storage). You can just add these to a Group (EGRP) named “HYDRO” to help keep things organized in your network.