A control strategy for optimal operation of a hydroelectric dam is found through nonlinear and quadratic programming techniques. We use symbolic math to formulate an original model of the hydroelectric dam and then optimize the operation schedule using FMINCON. We then show how improvements can be made to the optimization process and end up with a quadratic programming problem that can be solved efficiently using the large-scale "interior-point-convex" algorithm with the QUADPROG solver.
These files go along with the "An Introduction to Quadratic Programming" webinar, which can be found here: http://www.mathworks.com/videos/optimization-in-matlab-an-introduction-to-quadratic-programming-81868.html