  The instantaneous power generation from a hydroelectric turbine is
proportional to the product of head difference and turbine flow. The equation
relating power to hydraulic variables is therefore nonlinear. Hence,
optimization problems subject to this relation, such as release schedule
optimization, are nonconvex and may admit multiple local isolated minima. This
renders such problems problematic for use in operational model predictive
control. This paper shows that release schedule optimization problems subject
to the nonlinear turbine generation equation may be set up using a continuation
approach to be both zero-convex and path stable. In this way such optimization
problems become suitable for decision support systems based on model predictive
control. An example problem is studied, and it is shown that significant
productivity gains may be realized using the presented methodology.
