Development analysis and technological prospect for China's hydropower system dispatching in the new era

The successive implementation of national strategies such as “New Electricity Reform”，“Dual Carbon Goals”，and “AI+” has propelled China’s hundred-gigawatt-scale hydropower system into a new era. As the “brain” guiding the operation of hydropower systems，hydropower dispatching urgently needs to adapt to the more complex environment and requirements of this new era to support the efficient operation of the world's largest hydropower system. This paper discusses the ongoing and potential future development trends of hydropower system dispatching in China. The first is a shift from centralized dispatching to market-oriented operation to achieve more efficient allocation of high-quality green hydropower. The second is a transition from independent hydropower dispatching to complementary dispatching of hydropower and new energy sources，to better leverage the flexible regulation role of hydropower. The third is a move from human-computer modeling for optimized dispatching toward intelligent reasoning-based dispatching，making complex modeling and computation for large-scale hydropower systems simpler and more efficient. Meanwhile，the paper analyzes the key technological challenges facing the development of hydropower dispatching in China，summarizes research progress and prospects，and aims to provide references for professionals in the field to build a new-era hydropower dispatching technological system.