In view of the rather big gap between the actual operation level of hydropower stations and the optimal operation theory at home and abroad，the support vector machine is employed to formulate actual operating rules based on the deterministic optimal operation results so as to improve the actual operating level.By applying the model in cascade hydropower stations on Jinsha River-Yangtze River，combined with decision variable and independent variable selection，division of training data and prediction data，and parameter selection techniques，the prediction results exhibit good fitting accuracy.The simulation of cascade operation guided by operating rules shows that simulated operation has retained the benefits of optimal operation in the electric power generated，the generation guarantee rate and generation process，validating the feasibility and efficiency of the model and providing strong technical support and decision support to actual optimal operation of cascade hydropower stations.