Compensation benefits allocation and stability evaluation of cascade hydropower stations based on Variation Coefficient-Shapley Value Method.

[Display omitted] • The Variation Coefficient-Shapley Value Method is proposed. • Several typical allocation methods are compared with the proposed method. • The PTD index is adopted to quantitatively evaluate the stability of the allocation results. Maximizing the benefits of cascade hydropower stations will inevitably reduce the benefits of some upstream hydropower stations. In order to promote the joint operation and mutual cooperation between cascade hydropower stations, the scientific and fair allocation of compensation benefits between cascade hydropower stations is required. In this paper, a Variation Coefficient-Shapley Value Method for the compensation benefits allocation of multi-owner cascade hydropower stations is proposed, by combining individual characteristic weight coefficients with the Shapley value of each hydropower station. The Propensity to Disrupt (PTD) method is adopted to quantitatively evaluate the stability of the allocation results. Then an exemplary cascade of three hydropower stations on the Nanhe River in China is used as a case to calculate the compensation benefits via the proposed Variation Coefficient-Shapley Value Method and compared with other typical allocation methods. The results show that the leading hydropower station can get more compensation benefits as well as the second and third stage hydropower stations get reasonable compensation benefits. The stability of the cascade alliance in the compensation benefits allocation of the proposed method surpasses that of the other methods. This indicates the ability of the proposed method to both consider the individual marginal contribution and individual characteristics of each hydropower station when participating in joint operation. The proposed method proves to achieve a fair and rational compensation benefits allocation among the cascade hydropower stations and can potentially improve the utilization efficiency of water resources in the river basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]