Under the context of extreme drought and the rapid transition between flood and drought in the Yangtze River Basin

which limits the hydropower utilization of cascade power stations

the study focuses on the Xiluodu-Xiangjiaba cascade reservoirs. A 10-day scale HEC-ResSim joint scheduling model is developed for the analysis. Scenario comparison analysis was conducted under the benchmark of a normal water year

drought years with return periods of 50/100/1 000 years

and a representative 2021 rapid wet-to-dry transition scenario. Results show that

under the current regulations

concentrated water abandonment still occurs during the main flood season( July-August) in drought years. In 2021

the peak of water abandonment lagged until the early September

leading to significant constraints on power generation output and water energy utilization efficiency. During extreme droughts

the annual power generation of Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba hydropower stations shows a substantial decrease compared with that in normal water years. To address the aforementioned shortcomings

three categories of adaptive strategies are proposed: raising the flood control level; advancing the impoundment schedule; raising the flood control level while advancing the impoundment schedule. Simulation results demonstrate that under the 1000-year return period extreme drought

Strategy 3 increases the total power generation of the cascaded hydropower stations by 1. 0 ×10~9k Wh

which is superior to both Strategy 1 and Strategy 2; Under the 2021 scenario of abrupt wet-dry transition

Strategy 3 increases the cascaded hydropower stations' total power generation by 1. 7 × 10~9k Wh while significantly reducing water abandonment( the annual abandoned flow rates of the two reservoirs decrease by approximately 8 332. 1 m3/s and 7 617. 3m3/s

respectively). Strategy 2 also achieves considerable growth in power generation and a notable reduction in water abandonment

whereas the effect of Strategy 1 is relatively limited. The research demonstrates that differentiated operation strategies tailored to diverse hydrological years can significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the cascaded system and strengthen its adaptability to extreme scenarios without altering the engineering safety constraints.