OPTIMAL TIMAH TASOH RESERVOIR IN, PERLIS: AN OPERATION USING THE GRAVITATIONAL SEARCH ALGORITHM (GSA)

Abstract

The construction of a dam or a reservoir can have a serious impact the environment. When dealing with the increasing water demand from irrigation and water supply, alternative solution has to be sought way rather than building a new dam. Therefore, reservoir optimization can be employed as a new approach in sustainable engineering to solve this kind of problem. In this paper an optimization algorithm based on the Newton law of gravity, which is called Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), is introduced for optimal reservoir operation study. In GSA, every mass has four specifications, which are position, inertial mass, active gravitational mass, and passive gravitational.  The location of the mass is the solution of the problem, with the gravitational and inertial masses being determined by using a fitness function. Furthermore, The algorithm was applied to the Timah Tasoh reservoir and the release policy was tested by using simulation of demand and release. The result revealed that 72% of the times the reservoir managed to fulfill the demand to the users. Moreover, with the new optimized release policy, the dam operator can manage the reservoir release for the users by determining the inflow pattern, as well as by and observing the current storage condition as a guideline