A stream-scale model to optimize the water allocation for Small Hydropower Plants and the application to traditional systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razurel, Pierre; Niayifar, Amin; Perona, Paolo

2017-04-01

Hydropower plays an important role in supplying worldwide energy demand where it contributes to approximately 16% of global electricity production. Although hydropower, as an emission-free renewable energy, is a reliable source of energy to mitigate climate change, its development will increase river exploitation. The environmental impacts associated with both small hydropower plants (SHP) and traditional dammed systems have been found to the consequence of changing natural flow regime with other release policies, e.g. the minimal flow. Nowadays, in some countries, proportional allocation rules are also applied aiming to mimic the natural flow variability. For example, these dynamic rules are part of the environmental guidance in the United Kingdom and constitute an improvement in comparison to static rules. In a context in which the full hydropower potential might be reached in a close future, a solution to optimize the water allocation seems essential. In this work, we present a model that enables to simulate a wide range of water allocation rules (static and dynamic) for a specific hydropower plant and to evaluate their associated economic and ecological benefits. It is developed in the form of a graphical user interface (GUI) where, depending on the specific type of hydropower plant (i.e., SHP or traditional dammed system), the user is able to specify the different characteristics (e.g., hydrological data and turbine characteristics) of the studied system. As an alternative to commonly used policies, a new class of dynamic allocation functions (non-proportional repartition rules) is introduced (e.g., Razurel et al., 2016). The efficiency plot resulting from the simulations shows the environmental indicator and the energy produced for each allocation policies. The optimal water distribution rules can be identified on the Pareto's frontier, which is obtained by stochastic optimization in the case of storage systems (e.g., Niayifar and Perona, submitted) and by direct simulation for small hydropower ones (Razurel et al., 2016). Compared to proportional and constant minimal flows, economic and ecological efficiencies are found to be substantially improved in the case of using non-proportional water allocation rules for both SHP and traditional systems.

Efficiently approximating the Pareto frontier: Hydropower dam placement in the Amazon basin

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Xiaojian; Gomes-Selman, Jonathan; Shi, Qinru; Xue, Yexiang; Garcia-Villacorta, Roosevelt; Anderson, Elizabeth; Sethi, Suresh; Steinschneider, Scott; Flecker, Alexander; Gomes, Carla P.

2018-01-01

Real–world problems are often not fully characterized by a single optimal solution, as they frequently involve multiple competing objectives; it is therefore important to identify the so-called Pareto frontier, which captures solution trade-offs. We propose a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme based on Dynamic Programming (DP) for computing a polynomially succinct curve that approximates the Pareto frontier to within an arbitrarily small > 0 on treestructured networks. Given a set of objectives, our approximation scheme runs in time polynomial in the size of the instance and 1/. We also propose a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) scheme to approximate the Pareto frontier. The DP and MIP Pareto frontier approaches have complementary strengths and are surprisingly effective. We provide empirical results showing that our methods outperform other approaches in efficiency and accuracy. Our work is motivated by a problem in computational sustainability concerning the proliferation of hydropower dams throughout the Amazon basin. Our goal is to support decision-makers in evaluating impacted ecosystem services on the full scale of the Amazon basin. Our work is general and can be applied to approximate the Pareto frontier of a variety of multiobjective problems on tree-structured networks.

Decision Support System for Reservoir Management and Operation in Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navar, D. A.

2016-12-01

Africa is currently experiencing a surge in dam construction for flood control, water supply and hydropower production, but ineffective reservoir management has caused problems in the region, such as water shortages, flooding and loss of potential hydropower generation. Our research aims to remedy ineffective reservoir management by developing a novel Decision Support System(DSS) to equip water managers with a technical planning tool based on the state of the art in hydrological sciences. The DSS incorporates a climate forecast model, a hydraulic model of the watershed, and an optimization model to effectively plan for the operation of a system of cascade large-scale reservoirs for hydropower production, while treating water supply and flood control as constraints. Our team will use the newly constructed hydropower plants in the Omo Gibe basin of Ethiopia as the test case. Using the basic HIDROTERM software developed in Brazil, the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) utilizes a combination of linear programing (LP) and non-linear programming (NLP) in conjunction with real time hydrologic and energy demand data to optimize the monthly and daily operations of the reservoir system. We compare the DSS model results with the current reservoir operating policy used by the water managers of that region. We also hope the DSS will eliminate the current dangers associated with the mismanagement of large scale water resources projects in Africa.

75 FR 65012 - Small Hydropower Development in the United States; Notice of Small/Low-Impact Hydropower Webinar

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-21

... and walk participants through all phases of the licensing and exemption processes using the Web site. Specifically, the webinar will provide the opportunity for participants to learn about the small hydropower licensing process, find out how to get more information and assistance from FERC, and ask questions. To...

76 FR 30937 - Small Hydropower Development in the United States; Notice of Small/Low-Impact Hydropower Webinar

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-27

... Development in the United States; Notice of Small/Low-Impact Hydropower Webinar The Federal Energy Regulatory... projects. Specifically, the webinar will provide the opportunity for participants to learn the differences..., learn how to get more information and assistance from FERC staff, and ask questions. To register for...

Hydro-economic performances of streamflow withdrawal strategies: the case of small run-of-river power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basso, Stefano; Lazzaro, Gianluca; Schirmer, Mario; Botter, Gianluca

2014-05-01

River flows withdrawals to supply small run-of-river hydropower plants have been increasing significantly in recent years - particularly in the Alpine area - as a consequence of public incentives aimed at enhancing energy production from renewable sources. This growth further raised the anthropic pressure in areas traditionally characterized by an intense exploitation of water resources, thereby triggering social conflicts among local communities, hydropower investors and public authorities. This brought to the attention of scientists and population the urgency for novel and quantitative tools for assessing the hydrologic impact of these type of plants, and trading between economic interests and ecologic concerns. In this contribution we propose an analytical framework that allows for the estimate of the streamflow availability for hydropower production and the selection of the run-of-river plant capacity, as well as the assessment of the related profitability and environmental impacts. The method highlights the key role of the streamflow variability in the design process, by showing the significance control of the coefficient of variation of daily flows on the duration of the optimal capacity of small run-of-river plants. Moreover, the analysis evidences a gap between energy and economic optimizations, which may result in the under-exploitation of the available hydropower potential at large scales. The disturbances to the natural flow regime produced between the intake and the outflow of run-of-river power plants are also estimated within the proposed framework. The altered hydrologic regime, described through the probability distribution and the correlation function of streamflows, is analytically expressed as a function of the natural regime for different management strategies. The deviations from pristine conditions of a set of hydrologic statistics are used, jointly with an economic index, to compare environmental and economic outcomes of alternative plant setups and management strategies. Benefits connected to ecosystem services provided by unimpaired riverine environments can be also included in the analysis, possibly accounting for the disruptive effect of multiple run-of-river power plants built in cascade along the same river. The application to case studies in the Alpine region shows the potential of the tool to assess different management strategies and design solution, and to evaluate local and catchment scale impacts of small run-of-river hydropower development.

Waterpower '79: the first international conference on small-scale hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1979-01-01

Ninety-seven papers were presented at the meeting. A separate abstract was prepared for each of 94 papers. Three papers appeared previously in Energy Research Abstracts. Fifty-five of the papers will appear in Energy Abstracts for Policy Analysis (EAPA). (LCL)

SEE HYDROPOWER Project, targeted to improve water resource management for a growing renewable energy production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peviani, Maximo; Alterach, Julio; Danelli, Andrea

2010-05-01

The three years SEE HYDROPOWER project started on June 2009, financed by the South-East Transnational Cooperation Programme (EU), aims to a sustainable exploitation of water concerning hydropower production in SEE countries, looking up to renewable energy sources development, preserving environmental quality and preventing flood risk. Hydropower is the most important renewable resource for energy production in the SEE countries but creates ecological impacts on a local scale. If on one hand, hydroelectric production has to be maintained and likely increased following the demand trend and RES-e Directive, on the other hand, hydropower utilisation often involves severe hydrological changes, damages the connectivity of water bodies and injures river ecosystems. The project gives a strong contribution to the integration between the Water Frame and the RES-e Directives in the involved countries. The SEE HYDROPOWER project promotes the optimal use of water, as multiple natural resources, in order to face the increasing regional electrical-energy demand. Furthermore, SEE HYDROPOWER defines specific needs and test methodologies & tools, in order to help public bodies to take decisions about planning and management of water and hydropower concessions, considering all multi-purposes uses, taking into account the environmental sustainability of natural resources and flooding risks. Investigations is carried on to define common strategies & methods for preserving river with particular concerns to aquatic ecosystems, considering the required Minimum Environmental Flow, macro-habitat quality, migratory fishes and related environmental issues. Other problem addressed by the Project is the contrast between Public Administration and Environmental associations on one side and the Hydropower producers on the other side, for the exploitation of water bodies. Competition between water users (for drinking, irrigation, industrial processes, power generation, etc.) is becoming a serious problem, and there is a strong need of a more accurate planning and management optimization of the resources. The partnership includes a well balance mixing of public administrations, agencies ruling hydropower development, water bodies conservation and scientific institutions having the most advanced technology applied to water management and hydropower generation. Furthermore, a permanent "consultant panel" integrated by target groups representatives from different European countries are involved in key decisions and meetings, that guaranty a concrete regional scale participation. The present work reports the overall strategy of the project and the description of the main informatic tools that are under development and implementation in five pilot regions, located in Italy, Austria, Romania, Slovenia and Greece. Keywords: WFD Directive, RES-e Directive, water multi-purpose uses, renewable energy, small hydropower production, environmental balance, minimum environmental flow, flood protection

Influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation on global hydropower production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ng, Jia Yi; Turner, Sean; Galelli, Stefano

2016-04-01

Hydropower contributes significantly to meeting the world's energy demand, accounting for at least 16% of total electrical output. Its role as a mature and cost competitive renewable energy source is expected to become increasingly important as the world transits to a low-carbon economy. A key component of hydropower production is runoff, which is highly dependent on precipitation and other climate variables. As such, it becomes critical to understand how the drivers of climate variability impact hydropower production. One globally-important driver is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). While it is known that ENSO influences hydrological processes, the potential value of its associated teleconnection in design related tasks has yet to be explored at the global scale. Our work seeks to characterize the impact of ENSO on global hydropower production so as to quantify the potential for increased production brought about by incorporating climate information within reservoir operating models. We study over 1,500 hydropower reservoirs - representing more than half the world's hydropower capacity. A historical monthly reservoir inflow time series is assigned to each reservoir from a 0.5 degree gridded global runoff dataset. Reservoir operating rules are designed using stochastic dynamic programming, and storage dynamics are simulated to assess performance under the climate conditions of the 20th century. Results show that hydropower reservoirs in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and Eastern China are strongly influenced by ENSO episodes. Statistically significant lag correlations between ENSO indicators and hydropower production demonstrate predictive skill with lead times up to several months. Our work highlights the potential for using these indicators to increase the contribution of existing hydropower plants to global energy supplies.

Small Hydropower Development in Rwanda: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geoffrey, Gasore; Zimmerle, Daniel; Ntagwirumugara, Etienne

2018-04-01

The Rift Valley region of Sub-Saharan Africa represents a promising area for the development of small (<5MW) hydropower resources. This study compiles data from government and UN agency reports to analyze different development outlooks. The study found that there has been a rapid deployment of small hydropower in the last 10 years. From the current total deployed small hydro of 47.5 MW, 16.5MW (35%) were deployed from 1957 to 1984 while the remaining 31 MW (65%) were deployed from 2007 to 2017. While all systems constructed prior to 1985 are grid-connected, one third of the 24 facilities constructed after 2007 are connected to off-grid systems. The study provides an overview of the economic incentives for developing small hydropower systems in Rwanda and the potential contribution of that development to Rwanda’s electrification goals.

DOE Hydropower Program biennial report 1996-1997 (with an updated annotated bibliography)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rinehart, B.N.; Francfort, J.E.; Sommers, G.L.

1997-06-01

This report, the latest in a series of biennial Hydropower Program reports sponsored by the US Department of Energy, summarizes the research and development and technology transfer activities of fiscal years 1996 and 1997. The report discusses the activities in the six areas of the hydropower program: advanced hydropower turbine systems; environmental research; hydropower research and development; renewable Indian energy resources; resource assessment; and technology transfer. The report also includes an annotated bibliography of reports pertinent to hydropower, written by the staff of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Federal and state agencies, cities, metropolitanmore » water districts, irrigation companies, and public and independent utilities. Most reports are available from the National Technical Information Service.« less

Enhancing the resiliency of small hydropower projects: environmental function, modularity, and stakeholder elicitation as design priorities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Witt, Adam M; Smith, Brennan T

Small hydropower plants supply reliable renewable energy to the grid, though few new plants have been developed in the Unites States over the past few decades due to complex environmental challenges and poor project economics. This paper describes the current landscape of small hydropower development, and introduces a new approach to facility design that co-optimizes the extraction of hydroelectric power from a stream with other important environmental functions such as fish, sediment, and recreational passage. The approach considers hydropower facilities as an integrated system of standardized interlocking modules, designed to sustain stream functions, generate power, and interface with the streambed.more » It is hypothesized that this modular eco-design approach, when guided by input from the broader small hydropower stakeholder community, can lead to cost savings across the facility, reduced licensing and approval timelines, and ultimately, to enhanced resiliency through improved environmental performance over the lifetime of the project.« less

Small hydropower spot prediction using SWAT and a diversion algorithm, case study: Upper Citarum Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kardhana, Hadi; Arya, Doni Khaira; Hadihardaja, Iwan K.; Widyaningtyas, Riawan, Edi; Lubis, Atika

2017-11-01

Small-Scale Hydropower (SHP) had been important electric energy power source in Indonesia. Indonesia is vast countries, consists of more than 17.000 islands. It has large fresh water resource about 3 m of rainfall and 2 m of runoff. Much of its topography is mountainous, remote but abundant with potential energy. Millions of people do not have sufficient access to electricity, some live in the remote places. Recently, SHP development was encouraged for energy supply of the places. Development of global hydrology data provides opportunity to predict distribution of hydropower potential. In this paper, we demonstrate run-of-river type SHP spot prediction tool using SWAT and a river diversion algorithm. The use of Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with input of CFSR (Climate Forecast System Re-analysis) of 10 years period had been implemented to predict spatially distributed flow cumulative distribution function (CDF). A simple algorithm to maximize potential head of a location by a river diversion expressing head race and penstock had been applied. Firm flow and power of the SHP were estimated from the CDF and the algorithm. The tool applied to Upper Citarum River Basin and three out of four existing hydropower locations had been well predicted. The result implies that this tool is able to support acceleration of SHP development at earlier phase.

Energy Recovery Hydropower: Prospects for Off-Setting Electricity Costs for Agricultural, Municipal, and Industrial Water Providers and Users; July 2017 - September 2017

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levine, Aaron L.; Curtis, Taylor L.; Johnson, Kurt

Energy recovery hydropower is one of the most cost-effective types of new hydropower development because it is constructed utilizing existing infrastructure, and it is typically able to complete Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) review in 60 days. Recent changes in federal and state policy have supported energy recovery hydropower. In addition, some states have developed programs and policies to support energy recovery hydropower, including resource assessments, regulatory streamlining initiatives, and grant and loan programs to reduce project development costs. This report examines current federal and state policy drivers for energy recovery hydropower, reviews market trends, and looks ahead at futuremore » federal resource assessments and hydropower reform legislation.« less

Detecting Human Hydrologic Alteration from Diversion Hydropower Requires Universal Flow Prediction Tools: A Proposed Framework for Flow Prediction in Poorly-gauged, Regulated Rivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kibler, K. M.; Alipour, M.

2016-12-01

Achieving the universal energy access Sustainable Development Goal will require great investment in renewable energy infrastructure in the developing world. Much growth in the renewable sector will come from new hydropower projects, including small and diversion hydropower in remote and mountainous regions. Yet, human impacts to hydrological systems from diversion hydropower are poorly described. Diversion hydropower is often implemented in ungauged rivers, thus detection of impact requires flow analysis tools suited to prediction in poorly-gauged and human-altered catchments. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of hydrologic alteration in 32 rivers developed with diversion hydropower in southwestern China. As flow data are sparse, we devise an approach for estimating streamflow during pre- and post-development periods, drawing upon a decade of research into prediction in ungauged basins. We apply a rainfall-runoff model, parameterized and forced exclusively with global-scale data, in hydrologically-similar gauged and ungauged catchments. Uncertain "soft" data are incorporated through fuzzy numbers and confidence-based weighting, and a multi-criteria objective function is applied to evaluate model performance. Testing indicates that the proposed framework returns superior performance (NSE = 0.77) as compared to models parameterized by rote calibration (NSE = 0.62). Confident that the models are providing `the right answer for the right reasons', our analysis of hydrologic alteration based on simulated flows indicates statistically significant hydrologic effects of diversion hydropower across many rivers. Mean annual flows, 7-day minimum and 7-day maximum flows decreased. Frequency and duration of flow exceeding Q25 decreased while duration of flows sustained below the Q75 increased substantially. Hydrograph rise and fall rates and flow constancy increased. The proposed methodology may be applied to improve diversion hydropower design in data-limited regions.

A Holistic Framework for Environmental Flows Determination in Hydropower Contexts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManamay, Ryan A; Bevelhimer, Mark S

2013-05-01

Among the ecological science community, the consensus view is that the natural flow regime sustains the ecological integrity of river systems. This prevailing viewpoint by many environmental stakeholders has progressively led to increased pressure on hydropower dam owners to change plant operations to affect downstream river flows with the intention of providing better conditions for aquatic biological communities. Identifying the neccessary magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, or rate of change of stream flows to meet ecological needs in a hydropower context is challenging because the ecological responses to changes in flows may not be fully known, there are usually a multitudemore » of competing users of flow, and implementing environmental flows usually comes at a price to energy production. Realistically, hydropower managers must develop a reduced set of goals that provide the most benefit to the identified ecological needs. As a part of the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program, the Instream Flow Project (IFP) was carried out by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Argon National Laboratory (ANL) as an attempt to develop tools aimed at defining environmental flow needs for hydropower operations. The application of these tools ranges from national to site-specific scales; thus, the utility of each tool will depend on various phases of the environmental flow process. Given the complexity and sheer volume of applications used to determine environmentally acceptable flows for hydropower, a framework is needed to organize efforts into a staged process dependent upon spatial, temporal, and functional attributes. By far, the predominant domain for determining environmental flows related to hydropower is within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing process. This process can take multiple years and can be very expensive depending on the scale of each hydropower project. The utility of such a framework is that it can expedite the environmental flow process by 1) organizing data and applications to identify predictable relationships between flows and ecology, and 2) suggesting when and where tools should be used in the environmental flow process. In addition to regulatory procedures, a framework should also provide the coordination for a comprehensive research agenda to guide the science of environmental flows. This research program has further reaching benefits than just environmental flow determination by providing modeling applications, data, and geospatial layers to inform potential hydropower development. We address several objectives within this document that highlight the limitations of existing environmental flow paradigms and their applications to hydropower while presenting a new framework catered towards hydropower needs. Herein, we address the following objectives: 1) Provide a brief overview of the Natural Flow Regime paradigm and existing environmental flow frameworks that have been used to determine ecologically sensitive stream flows for hydropower operations. 2) Describe a new conceptual framework to aid in determining flows needed to meet ecological objectives with regard to hydropower operations. The framework is centralized around determining predictable relationships between flow and ecological responses. 3) Provide evidence of how efforts from ORNL, PNNL, and ANL have filled some of the gaps in this broader framework, and suggest how the framework can be used to set the stage for a research agenda for environmental flow.« less

2014 Water Power Program Peer Review: Hydropower Technologies, Compiled Presentations (Presentation)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This document represents a collection of all presentations given during the EERE Wind and Water Power Program's 2014 Hydropower Peer Review. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate DOE-funded hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic R&D projects for their contribution to the mission and goals of the Water Power Program and to assess progress made against stated objectives.

Standard Modular Hydropower Technology Acceleration Workshop: Summary Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smith, Brennan T.; DeNeale, Scott T.; Witt, Adam M.

In support of the Department of Energy (DOE) funded Standard Modular Hydropower (SMH) Technology Acceleration project, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff convened with five small hydropower technology entrepreneurs on June 14 and 15, 2017 to discuss gaps, challenges, and opportunities for small modular hydropower development. The workshop was designed to walk through SMH concepts, discuss the SMH research vision, assess how each participant’s technology aligns with SMH concepts and research, and identify future pathways for mutually beneficial collaboration that leverages ORNL expertise and entrepreneurial industry experience. The goal coming out of the workshop is to advance standardized, scalable, modularmore » hydropower technologies and development approaches with sustained and open dialogue among diverse stakeholder groups.« less

Trade-offs of water use for hydropower generation and biofuel production in the Zambezi basin in Mozambique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanzel, Philipp; Kling, Harald; Nicholson, Kit

2014-05-01

Hydropower is the most important energy source in Mozambique, as in many other southern African countries. In the Zambezi basin, it is one of the major economic resources, and substantial hydropower development is envisaged for the next decades. In Mozambique, the extension of the large Cahora Bassa hydropower plant and the construction of several new facilities downstream are planned. Irrigated agriculture currently plays a minor role, but has a large potential due to available land and water resources. Irrigation development, especially for the production of biofuels, is an important government policy goal in Mozambique. This contribution assesses interrelations and trade-offs between these two development options with high dependence on water availability. Potential water demand for large-scale irrigated agriculture is estimated for a mix of possible biofuel crops in three scenarios with different irrigated area sizes. Impacts on river discharge and hydropower production in the Lower Zambezi and its tributaries under two projected future climates are simulated with a hydrological model and a reservoir operation and hydropower model. Trade-offs of increasing biofuel production with decreasing hydropower generation due to diminished discharge in the Zambezi River are investigated based on potential energy production, from hydropower and biofuels, and resulting gross revenues and net benefits. Results show that the impact of irrigation withdrawal on hydropower production is rather low due to the generally high water availability in the Zambezi River. In simulations with substantial irrigated areas, hydropower generation decreases by -2% as compared to a scenario with only small irrigated areas. The economic analyses suggest that the use of water for cultivation of biofuel crops in the Zambezi basin can generate higher economic benefits than the use of water for hydroelectric power production. If world oil prices stay at more than about 80 USD/barrel, then the production of biofuels for oil import substitution will yield strong benefits except for the least efficient producers. Producing biofuels for export is more challenging and requires highly efficient production. Generally, investment in irrigated agriculture is expected to have more impact on local economy and therefore poverty reduction than investment in hydropower development.

Rivers of Energy: The Hydropower Potential. Worldwatch Paper No. 44.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deudney, Daniel

Described are the history, current status and future potential of hydroelectric power in the world. Issues discussed include the environmental and social impacts of dam construction, and the use of small-scale hydroelectric installations in developing nations. Also considered are hydroelectric development of the world's remote regions, the need to…

Trade-offs Between Electricity Production from Small Hydropower Plants and Ecosystem Services in Alpine River Basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, Philipp; Schwemmle, Robin; Viviroli, Daniel

2015-04-01

The need for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the decision to phase out nuclear power plants in Switzerland and Germany increases pressure to develop the remaining hydropower potential in Alpine catchments. Since most of the potential for large reservoirs is already exploited, future development focusses on small run-of-the-river hydropower plants (SHP). Being considered a relatively environment-friendly electricity source, investment in SHP is promoted through subsidies. However, SHP can have a significant impact on riverine ecosystems, especially in the Alpine region where residual flow reaches tend to be long. An increase in hydropower exploitation will therefore increase pressure on ecosystems. While a number of studies assessed the potential for hydropower development in the Alps, two main factors were so far not assessed in detail: (i) ecological impacts within a whole river network, and (ii) economic conditions under which electricity is sold. We present a framework that establishes trade-offs between multiple objectives regarding environmental impacts, electricity production and economic evaluation. While it is inevitable that some ecosystems are compromised by hydropower plants, the context of these impacts within a river network should be considered when selecting suitable sites for SHP. From an ecological point of view, the diversity of habitats, and therefore the diversity of species, should be maintained within a river basin. This asks for objectives that go beyond lumped parameters of hydrological alteration, but also consider habitat diversity and the spatial configuration. Energy production in run-of-the-river power plants depends on available discharge, which can have large fluctuations. In a deregulated electricity market with strong price variations, an economic valuation should therefore be based on the expected market value of energy produced. Trade-off curves between different objectives can help decision makers to define policies for licensing new SHP and for defining minimum flow requirements. The trade-offs are established using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. A case study on an Alpine catchment is presented. The position of water intake and outlet and the design capacity of SHP, and different environmental flow policies are used as decision variables. The calculation of complex objectives, as described above, relies on an accurate representation of the physical system. The river network is divided into segments of 500 meters length for each of which the slope is calculated. Natural incremental flows are calculated for each segment using the PREVAH hydrological modelling system. Trade-offs are established on the basin scale as well as on the sub-basin scale. This allows the assessment of the influence of different configurations of SHP on ecosystem quality across different spatial scales.

EERE Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program Technology Review (Deep Dive) for Under Secretaries Johnson and Koonin

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2009-09-01

September 4, 2009 presentation highlighting the Wind and Hydropower Program, addressing program goals and objectives, budgets, technology pathways, breakthroughs, and DOE solutions to market barriers.

EERE Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program Technology Review (Deep Dive) for Under Secretaries Johnson and Koonin

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCluer, Megan

2009-09-04

September 4, 2009 presentation highlighting the Wind and Hydropower Program, addressing program goals and objectives, budgets, technology pathways, breakthroughs, and DOE solutions to market barriers.

Water resources planning and management : A stochastic dual dynamic programming approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goor, Q.; Pinte, D.; Tilmant, A.

2008-12-01

Allocating water between different users and uses, including the environment, is one of the most challenging task facing water resources managers and has always been at the heart of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). As water scarcity is expected to increase over time, allocation decisions among the different uses will have to be found taking into account the complex interactions between water and the economy. Hydro-economic optimization models can capture those interactions while prescribing efficient allocation policies. Many hydro-economic models found in the literature are formulated as large-scale non linear optimization problems (NLP), seeking to maximize net benefits from the system operation while meeting operational and/or institutional constraints, and describing the main hydrological processes. However, those models rarely incorporate the uncertainty inherent to the availability of water, essentially because of the computational difficulties associated stochastic formulations. The purpose of this presentation is to present a stochastic programming model that can identify economically efficient allocation policies in large-scale multipurpose multireservoir systems. The model is based on stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP), an extension of traditional SDP that is not affected by the curse of dimensionality. SDDP identify efficient allocation policies while considering the hydrologic uncertainty. The objective function includes the net benefits from the hydropower and irrigation sectors, as well as penalties for not meeting operational and/or institutional constraints. To be able to implement the efficient decomposition scheme that remove the computational burden, the one-stage SDDP problem has to be a linear program. Recent developments improve the representation of the non-linear and mildly non- convex hydropower function through a convex hull approximation of the true hydropower function. This model is illustrated on a cascade of 14 reservoirs on the Nile river basin.

Estimation of the cost of electro-mechanical equipment for small hydropower plants - review and comparison of methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lipiński, Seweryn; Olkowski, Tomasz

2017-10-01

The estimate of the cost of electro-mechanical equipment for new small hydropower plants most often amounts to about 30-40% of the total budget. In case of modernization of existing installations, this estimation represents the main cost. This matter constitutes a research problem for at least few decades. Many models have been developed for that purpose. The aim of our work was to collect and analyse formulas that allow estimation of the cost of investment in electro-mechanical equipment for small hydropower plants. Over a dozen functions were analysed. To achieve the aim of our work, these functions were converted into the form allowing their comparison. Then the costs were simulated with respect to plants' powers and net heads; such approach is novel and allows deeper discussion of the problem, as well as drawing broader conclusions. The following conclusions can be drawn: significant differences in results obtained by using various formulas were observed; there is a need for a wide study based on national investments in small hydropower plants that would allow to develop equations based on local data; the obtained formulas would let to determinate the costs of modernization or a new construction of small hydropower plant more precisely; special attention should be payed to formulas considering turbine type.

Current and Future Environmental Balance of Small-Scale Run-of-River Hydropower.

PubMed

Gallagher, John; Styles, David; McNabola, Aonghus; Williams, A Prysor

2015-05-19

Globally, the hydropower (HP) sector has significant potential to increase its capacity by 2050. This study quantifies the energy and resource demands of small-scale HP projects and presents methods to reduce associated environmental impacts based on potential growth in the sector. The environmental burdens of three (50-650 kW) run-of-river HP projects were calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA). The global warming potential (GWP) for the projects to generate electricity ranged from 5.5-8.9 g CO2 eq/kWh, compared with 403 g CO2 eq/kWh for UK marginal grid electricity. A sensitivity analysis accounted for alternative manufacturing processes, transportation, ecodesign considerations, and extended project lifespan. These findings were extrapolated for technically viable HP sites in Europe, with the potential to generate 7.35 TWh and offset over 2.96 Mt of CO2 from grid electricity per annum. Incorporation of ecodesign could provide resource savings for these HP projects: avoiding 800 000 tonnes of concrete, 10 000 tonnes of steel, and 65 million vehicle miles. Small additional material and energy contributions can double a HP system lifespan, providing 39-47% reductions for all environmental impact categories. In a world of finite resources, this paper highlights the importance of HP as a resource-efficient, renewable energy system.

Red River of the North, Reconnaissance Report: Wild Rice River.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-12-01

2 lists the waste treatment facilities and needs of fifteen coumnities within the subbasin. Hydropower There are three dams located on the Wild Rice...potential hydroelectric sites. The dams were built primarily for flood control purposes and are classified as small-scale facilities. The main obstacles...drain a combined total area of 2,233 square miles. Several small low-water dams and a few larger impoundments have been constructed on the river and its

Hydropower Baseline Cost Modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O'Connor, Patrick W.; Zhang, Qin Fen; DeNeale, Scott T.

Recent resource assessments conducted by the United States Department of Energy have identified significant opportunities for expanding hydropower generation through the addition of power to non-powered dams and on undeveloped stream-reaches. Additional interest exists in the powering of existing water resource infrastructure such as conduits and canals, upgrading and expanding existing hydropower facilities, and the construction new pumped storage hydropower. Understanding the potential future role of these hydropower resources in the nation’s energy system requires an assessment of the environmental and techno-economic issues associated with expanding hydropower generation. To facilitate these assessments, this report seeks to fill the current gapsmore » in publically available hydropower cost-estimating tools that can support the national-scale evaluation of hydropower resources.« less

Hydropower Baseline Cost Modeling, Version 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O'Connor, Patrick W.

Recent resource assessments conducted by the United States Department of Energy have identified significant opportunities for expanding hydropower generation through the addition of power to non-powered dams and on undeveloped stream-reaches. Additional interest exists in the powering of existing water resource infrastructure such as conduits and canals, upgrading and expanding existing hydropower facilities, and the construction new pumped storage hydropower. Understanding the potential future role of these hydropower resources in the nation’s energy system requires an assessment of the environmental and techno-economic issues associated with expanding hydropower generation. To facilitate these assessments, this report seeks to fill the current gapsmore » in publically available hydropower cost estimating tools that can support the national-scale evaluation of hydropower resources.« less

New Small Hydropower Technology to be Deployed in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadjerioua, Boualem; Opsahl, Egil; Gordon, Jim

2012-01-01

Earth By Design Inc, (EBD), in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Knight Pi sold and Co., and CleanPower AS, has responded to a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) published by the Department of Energy (DOE) in April 2011. EBD submitted a proposal to install an innovative, small hydropower technology, the Turbinator, a Norwegian technology from CleanPower. The Turbinator combines an axial flow, fixed-blade Kaplan turbine and generator in a compact and sealed machine. This makes it a very simple and easy technology to be deployed and installed. DOE has awarded funding for this two-year project that will be implementedmore » in Culver, Oregon. ORNL with the collaboration of CleanPower, will assess and evaluate the technology before and during the manufacturing phase and produce a full report to DOE. The goal of this phase-one report is to provide DOE Head Quarters (HQ), water power program management, a report with findings about the performance, readiness, capability, strengths and weakness, limitation of the technology, and potential full-scale deployment and application in the United States. Because of the importance of this information to the conventional hydropower industry and regulators, preliminary results will rapidly be distributed in the form of conference presentations, ORNL/DOE technical reports (publically available online, and publications in the peer-reviewed, scientific literature. These reports will emphasize the relevance of the activities carried out over the two-year study (i.e., performance, robustness, capabilities, reliability, and cost of the Turbinator). A final report will be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication that conveys the experimental findings and discusses their implications for the Turbinator application and implementation. Phase-two of the project consists of deployment, construction, and project operations. A detailed report on assessment and the performance of the project will be presented and communicated to DOE and published by ORNL.« less

Evaluation of Application Space Expansion for the Sensor Fish

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

DeRolph, Christopher R.; Bevelhimer, Mark S.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed an instrument known as the sensor fish that can be released into downstream passage routes at hydropower facilities to collect data on the physical conditions that a fish might be exposed to during passage through a turbine. The US Department of Energy Wind and Water Power Program sees value in expanding the sensor fish application space beyond large Kaplan turbines in the northwest United States to evaluate conditions to which a greater variety of fish species are exposed. Development of fish-friendly turbines requires an understanding of both physical passage conditions and biological responsesmore » to those conditions. Expanding the use of sensor fish into other application spaces will add to the knowledge base of physical passage conditions and could also enhance the use of sensor fish as a site-specific tool in mitigating potential impacts to fish populations from hydropower. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) National Hydropower Assessment Program (NHAAP) database contains hydropower facility characteristics that, along with national fish distribution data, were used to evaluate potential interactions between fish species and project characteristics related to downstream passage issues. ORNL developed rankings for the turbine types in the NHAAP database in terms of their potential to impact fish through injury or mortality during downstream turbine passage. National-scale fish distributions for 31 key migratory species were spatially intersected with hydropower plant locations to identify facilities where turbines with a high threat to fish injury or mortality overlap with the potential range of a sensitive fish species. A dataset was produced that identifies hydropower facilities where deployment of the sensor fish technology might be beneficial in addressing issues related to downstream fish passage. The dataset can be queried to target specific geographic regions, fish species, license expiration dates, generation capacity levels, ownership characteristics, turbine characteristics, or any combination of these metrics.« less

Quantifying the extent of river fragmentation by hydropower dams in the Sarapiquí River Basin, Costa Rica

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Elizabeth P.; Pringle, Catherine M.; Freeman, Mary C.

2008-01-01

Costa Rica has recently experienced a rapid proliferation of dams for hydropower on rivers draining its northern Caribbean slope. In the Sarapiquí River Basin, eight hydropower plants were built between 1990 and 1999 and more projects are either under construction or proposed. The majority of these dams are small (<15 m tall) and operate as water diversion projects.While the potential environmental effects of individual projects are evaluated prior to dam construction, there is a need for consideration of the basin-scale ecological consequences of hydropower development. This study was a first attempt to quantify the extent of river fragmentation by dams in the Sarapiquí River Basin.Using simple spatial analyses, the length of river upstream from dams and the length of de-watered reaches downstream from dams was measured. Results indicated that there are currently 306.8 km of river (9.4% of the network) upstream from eight existing dams in the Sarapiquí River Basin and 30.6 km of rivers (0.9% of the network) with significantly reduced flow downstream from dams. Rivers upstream from dams primarily drain two life zones: Premontane Rain Forest (107.9 km) and Lower Montane Rain Forest (168.2 km).Simple spatial analyses can be used as a predictive or planning tool for considering the effects of future dams in a basin-scale context. In the Sarapiquí River Basin, we recommend that future dam projects be constructed on already dammed rivers to minimize additional river fragmentation and to protect remaining riverine connectivity.

Land Systems Impacts of Hydropower Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, G. C.; Torn, M. S.

2016-12-01

Hydropower is often seen as the low-cost, low-carbon, and high-return technology for meeting rising electricity demand and fueling economic growth. Despite the magnitude and pace of hydropower expansion in many developing countries, the potential land use and land cover change (LULCC), particularly indirect LULCC, resulting from hydropower development is poorly understood. Hydropower-driven LULCC can have multiple impacts ranging from global and local climate modification (e.g., increased extreme precipitation events or increased greenhouse gas emissions), ecosystem degradation and fragmentation, to feedbacks on hydropower generation (e.g., increased sedimentation of the reservoir). As a result, a better understanding of both direct and indirect LULCC impacts can inform a more integrated and low-impact model for energy planning in countries with transitioning or growing energy portfolios. This study uses multi-scale remote sensing imagery (Landsat, MODIS, fine-resolution commercial imagery) to estimate LULCC from past hydropower projects intended primarily for electricity generation in 12 countries in Africa, South and Central America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. It is important to examine multiple locations to determine how socio-political and environmental context determines the magnitude of LULCC. Previous studies have called for the need to scale-up local case studies to examine "cumulative impacts" of multiple development activities within a watershed. We use a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design using a time series of classified images and vegetation indices before and after hydropower plant construction as the response variable in an interrupted time series regression analysis. This statistical technique measures the "treatment" effect of hydropower development on indirect LULCC. Preliminary results show land use change and landscape fragmentation following hydropower development, primarily agricultural and urban in nature. These results suggest that indirect land use change should be considered in the energy planning process and design of environmental impact assessments. The large-scale land system impact assessment method used in this study can be extended to examine other intensive development projects such as road construction and mining.

Ecological footprint analysis of environmental impacts by cascaded exploitation of diversion-type small hydropower: a case study in southwest china

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhenhua; Li, Qingyun; Huang, Zhuo; Tang, Xianqiang; Zhao, Weihua

2017-05-01

Cascaded exploitation of diversion-type small hydropower (SHP) offers a source of new energy as well as socioeconomic benefits; however, it inevitably causes environmental disturbance and damage. Previous studies on the cumulative effect of cascaded diversion SHP rarely discussed using quantitative analysis method. In this paper, the ecological footprint analysis approach is proposed to assess the positive and negative impacts of cascaded diversion SHP on environment of a small-scale river in Southwest China. Positive impact is defined as ecological supply footprint (ESF), which refers to vegetation protection by replacing firewood with SHP. Negative impact is defined as ecological loss footprint (ELF), which includes fish and net primary productivity loss, vegetation destruction and soil erosion. With the raising in the number (n>4) of diversion SHP stations, the difference between ELF and ESF increases remarkably, suggesting that the adverse impacts of cascaded diversion SHP accumulate in the study area. Compared with vegetation destruction and soil erosion, the cumulative loss of fish and net productivity is the most important aspect of the adverse impacts which needs more attentions.

Hydropower Projects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2015-04-02

The Water Power Program helps industry harness this renewable, emissions-free resource to generate environmentally sustainable and cost-effective electricity. Through support for public, private, and nonprofit efforts, the Water Power Program promotes the development, demonstration, and deployment of advanced hydropower devices and pumped storage hydropower applications. These technologies help capture energy stored by diversionary structures, increase the efficiency of hydroelectric generation, and use excess grid energy to replenish storage reserves for use during periods of peak electricity demand. In addition, the Water Power Program works to assess the potential extractable energy from domestic water resources to assist industry and government inmore » planning for our nation’s energy future. From FY 2008 to FY 2014, DOE’s Water Power Program announced awards totaling approximately $62.5 million to 33 projects focused on hydropower. Table 1 provides a brief description of these projects.« less

Analysis and Research on the effect of the Operation of Small Hydropower in the Regional Power Grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ang, Fu; Guangde, Dong; Xiaojun, Zhu; Ruimiao, Wang; Shengyi, Zhu

2018-03-01

The analysis of reactive power balance and voltage of power network not only affects the system voltage quality, but also affects the economic operation of power grid. In the calculation of reactive power balance and voltage analysis in the past, the problem of low power and low system voltage has been the concern of people. When small hydropower stations in the wet period of low load, the analysis of reactive power surplus and high voltage for the system, if small hydropower unit the capability of running in phase is considered, it can effectively solve the system low operation voltage of the key point on the high side.

U.S. Strategic Interests and Georgias Prospects for NATO Membership

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-01

logistics and tourism . The remaining 17.6 percent was derived from small-scale industry, such as the production of alcoholic and nonalcoholic...attract additional “foreign investment [as well], with a focus on hydropower, agriculture, tourism , and textiles production.”62 “In 2014, the World...infrastructure development, and tourism .91 In October 2011, billionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili entered into politics, bringing the divided

National Hydropower Plant Dataset, Version 2 (FY18Q3)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Samu, Nicole; Kao, Shih-Chieh; O'Connor, Patrick

The National Hydropower Plant Dataset, Version 2 (FY18Q3) is a geospatially comprehensive point-level dataset containing locations and key characteristics of U.S. hydropower plants that are currently either in the hydropower development pipeline (pre-operational), operational, withdrawn, or retired. These data are provided in GIS and tabular formats with corresponding metadata for each. In addition, we include access to download 2 versions of the National Hydropower Map, which was produced with these data (i.e. Map 1 displays the geospatial distribution and characteristics of all operational hydropower plants; Map 2 displays the geospatial distribution and characteristics of operational hydropower plants with pumped storagemore » and mixed capabilities only). This dataset is a subset of ORNL's Existing Hydropower Assets data series, updated quarterly as part of ORNL's National Hydropower Asset Assessment Program.« less

US hydropower resource assessment for Hawaii

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Francfort, J.E.

1996-09-01

US DOE is developing an estimate of the undeveloped hydropower potential in US. The Hydropower Evaluation Software (HES) is a computer model developed by INEL for this purpose. HES measures the undeveloped hydropower resources available in US, using uniform criteria for measurement. The software was tested using hydropower information and data provided by Southwestern Power Administration. It is a menu-driven program that allows the PC user to assign environmental attributes to potential hydropower sites, calculate development suitability factors for each site based on the environmental attributes, and generate reports. This report describes the resource assessment results for the State ofmore » Hawaii.« less

Dynamical nexus of water supply, hydropower and environment based on the modeling of multiple socio-natural processes: from socio-hydrological perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, D.; Wei, X.; Li, H. Y.; Lin, M.; Tian, F.; Huang, Q.

2017-12-01

In the socio-hydrological system, the ecological functions and environmental services, which are chosen to maintain, are determined by the preference of the society, which is making the trade-off among the values of riparian vegetation, fish, river landscape, water supply, hydropower, navigation and so on. As the society develops, the preference of the value will change and the ecological functions and environmental services which are chosen to maintain will change. The aim of the study is to focus on revealing the feedback relationship of water supply, hydropower and environment and the dynamical feedback mechanism at macro-scale, and to establish socio-hydrological evolution model of the watershed based on the modeling of multiple socio-natural processes. The study will aim at the Han River in China, analyze the impact of the water supply and hydropower on the ecology, hydrology and other environment elements, and study the effect on the water supply and hydropower to ensure the ecological and environmental water of the different level. Water supply and ecology are usually competitive. In some reservoirs, hydropower and ecology are synergic relationship while they are competitive in some reservoirs. The study will analyze the multiple mechanisms to implement the dynamical feedbacks of environment to hydropower, set up the quantitative relationship description of the feedback mechanisms, recognize the dominant processes in the feedback relationships of hydropower and environment and then analyze the positive and negative feedbacks in the feedback networks. The socio-hydrological evolution model at the watershed scale will be built and applied to simulate the long-term evolution processes of the watershed of the current situation. Dynamical nexus of water supply, hydropower and environment will be investigated.

Analysis of synchronous and induction generators used at hydroelectric power plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diniş, C. M.; Popa, G. N.; lagăr, A.

2017-01-01

In this paper is presented an analysis of the operating electric generators (synchronous and induction) within a small capacity hydroelectric power plant. Such is treated the problem of monitoring and control hydropower plant using SCADA systems. Have been carried an experimental measurements in small hydropower plant for different levels of water in the lake and various settings of the operating parameters.

[Effects of small hydropower substitute fuel project on forest ecosystem services].

PubMed

Yu, Hai Yan; Zha, Tong Gang; Nie, Li Shui; Lyu, Zhi Yuan

2016-10-01

Based on the Forest Ecosystem Services Assessment Standards (LY/T 1721－2008) issued by the State Forestry Administration, this paper evaluated four key functions of forest ecosystems, i.e., water conservation, soil conservation, carbon fixation and oxygen release, and nutrient accumulation. Focusing on the project area of Majiang County in Guizhou Province, this study provided some quantitative evidence that the implementation of the small hydropower substituting fuel project had positive effects on the values and material quantities of ecosystem service functions. The results showed that the small hydropower substituting fuel project had a significant effect on the increase of forest ecosystem services. Water conservation quantity of Pinus massoniana and Cupressus funebris plantations inside project area was 20662.04 m 3 ·hm -2 ·a -1 , 20.5% higher than outside project area, with soil conservation quantity of 119.1 t·hm -2 ·a -1 , 29.7% higher than outside project area, carbon fixation and oxygen release of 220.49 t·hm -2 ·a -1 , 40.2% higher than outside project area, and forest tree nutrition accumulation of 3.49 t·hm -2 ·a -1 , 48.5% higher than outside project area. Small hydropower substituting fuel project for increasing the quota of forest ecosystem service function value was in the order of carbon fixation and oxygen release function (71400 yuan·hm -2 ·a -1 ) > water conservation function (60100 yuan·hm -2 ·a -1 ) > tree nutrition accumulation function (13800 yuan·hm -2 ·a -1 ) > soil conservation function (8100 yuan·hm -2 ·a -1 ). Small hydropower substituting fuel project played an important role for improving the forest ecological service function value and realizing the sustainable development of forest.

Modelling white-water rafting suitability in a hydropower regulated Alpine River.

PubMed

Carolli, Mauro; Zolezzi, Guido; Geneletti, Davide; Siviglia, Annunziato; Carolli, Fabiano; Cainelli, Oscar

2017-02-01

Cultural and recreational river ecosystem services and their relations with the flow regime are still poorly investigated. We develop a modelling-based approach to assess recreational flow requirements and the spatially distributed river suitability for white-water rafting, a typical service offered by mountain streams, with potential conflicts of interest with hydropower regulation. The approach is based on the principles of habitat suitability modelling using water depth as the main attribute, with preference curves defined through interviews with local rafting guides. The methodology allows to compute streamflow thresholds for conditions of suitability and optimality of a river reach in relation to rafting. Rafting suitability response to past, present and future flow management scenarios can be predicted on the basis of a hydrological model, which is incorporated in the methodology and is able to account for anthropic effects. Rafting suitability is expressed through a novel metric, the "Rafting hydro-suitability index" (RHSI) which quantifies the cumulative duration of suitable and optimal conditions for rafting. The approach is applied on the Noce River (NE Italy), an Alpine River regulated by hydropower production and affected by hydropeaking, which influences suitability at a sub-daily scale. A dedicated algorithm is developed within the hydrological model to resemble hydropeaking conditions with daily flow data. In the Noce River, peak flows associated with hydropeaking support rafting activities in late summer, highlighting the dual nature of hydropeaking in regulated rivers. Rafting suitability is slightly reduced under present, hydropower-regulated flow conditions compared to an idealized flow regime characterised by no water abstractions. Localized water abstractions for small, run-of-the-river hydropower plants are predicted to negatively affect rafting suitability. The proposed methodology can be extended to support decision making for flow management in hydropower regulated streams, as it has the potential to quantify the response of different ecosystem services to flow regulation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hydropower and sustainability: resilience and vulnerability in China's powersheds.

PubMed

McNally, Amy; Magee, Darrin; Wolf, Aaron T

2009-07-01

Large dams represent a whole complex of social, economic and ecological processes, perhaps more than any other large infrastructure project. Today, countries with rapidly developing economies are constructing new dams to provide energy and flood control to growing populations in riparian and distant urban communities. If the system is lacking institutional capacity to absorb these physical and institutional changes there is potential for conflict, thereby threatening human security. In this paper, we propose analyzing sustainability (political, socioeconomic, and ecological) in terms of resilience versus vulnerability, framed within the spatial abstraction of a powershed. The powershed framework facilitates multi-scalar and transboundary analysis while remaining focused on the questions of resilience and vulnerability relating to hydropower dams. Focusing on examples from China, this paper describes the complex nature of dams using the sustainability and powershed frameworks. We then analyze the roles of institutions in China to understand the relationships between power, human security and the socio-ecological system. To inform the study of conflicts over dams China is a particularly useful case study because we can examine what happens at the international, national and local scales. The powershed perspective allows us to examine resilience and vulnerability across political boundaries from a dynamic, process-defined analytical scale while remaining focused on a host of questions relating to hydro-development that invoke drivers and impacts on national and sub-national scales. The ability to disaggregate the affects of hydropower dam construction from political boundaries allows for a deeper analysis of resilience and vulnerability. From our analysis we find that reforms in China's hydropower sector since 1996 have been motivated by the need to create stability at the national scale rather than resilient solutions to China's growing demand for energy and water resource control at the local and international scales. Some measures that improved economic development through the market economy and a combination of dam construction and institutional reform may indeed improve hydro-political resilience at a single scale. However, if China does address large-scale hydropower construction's potential to create multi-scale geopolitical tensions, they may be vulnerable to conflict - though not necessarily violent - in domestic and international political arenas. We conclude with a look toward a resilient basin institution for the Nu/Salween River, the site of a proposed large-scale hydropower development effort in China and Myanmar.

U.S. hydropower resource assessment for Idaho

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Conner, A.M.; Francfort, J.E.

1998-08-01

The US Department of Energy is developing an estimate of the undeveloped hydropower potential in the US. The Hydropower Evaluation Software (HES) is a computer model that was developed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory for this purpose. HES measures the undeveloped hydropower resources available in the US, using uniform criteria for measurement. The software was developed and tested using hydropower information and data provided by the Southwestern Power Administration. It is a menu-driven program that allows the personal computer user to assign environmental attributes to potential hydropower sites, calculate development suitability factors for each site based onmore » the environmental attributes present, and generate reports based on these suitability factors. This report describes the resource assessment results for the State of Idaho.« less

Asynchrony of wind and hydropower resources in Australia.

PubMed

Gunturu, Udaya Bhaskar; Hallgren, Willow

2017-08-18

Wind and hydropower together constitute nearly 80% of the renewable capacity in Australia and their resources are collocated. We show that wind and hydro generation capacity factors covary negatively at the interannual time scales. Thus, the technology diversity mitigates the variability of renewable power generation at the interannual scales. The asynchrony of wind and hydropower resources is explained by the differential impact of the two modes of the El Ni˜no Southern Oscillation - canonical and Modoki - on the wind and hydro resources. Also, the Modoki El Ni˜no and the Modoki La Ni˜na phases have greater impact. The seasonal impact patterns corroborate these results. As the proportion of wind power increases in Australia's energy mix, this negative covariation has implications for storage capacity of excess wind generation at short time scales and for generation system adequacy at the longer time scales.

Modeling Multi-Reservoir Hydropower Systems in the Sierra Nevada with Environmental Requirements and Climate Warming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rheinheimer, David Emmanuel

Hydropower systems and other river regulation often harm instream ecosystems, partly by altering the natural flow and temperature regimes that ecosystems have historically depended on. These effects are compounded at regional scales. As hydropower and ecosystems are increasingly valued globally due to growing values for clean energy and native species as well as and new threats from climate warming, it is important to understand how climate warming might affect these systems, to identify tradeoffs between different water uses for different climate conditions, and to identify promising water management solutions. This research uses traditional simulation and optimization to explore these issues in California's upper west slope Sierra Nevada mountains. The Sierra Nevada provides most of the water for California's vast water supply system, supporting high-elevation hydropower generation, ecosystems, recreation, and some local municipal and agricultural water supply along the way. However, regional climate warming is expected to reduce snowmelt and shift runoff to earlier in the year, affecting all water uses. This dissertation begins by reviewing important literature related to the broader motivations of this study, including river regulation, freshwater conservation, and climate change. It then describes three substantial studies. First, a weekly time step water resources management model spanning the Feather River watershed in the north to the Kern River watershed in the south is developed. The model, which uses the Water Evaluation And Planning System (WEAP), includes reservoirs, run-of-river hydropower, variable head hydropower, water supply demand, and instream flow requirements. The model is applied with a runoff dataset that considers regional air temperature increases of 0, 2, 4 and 6 °C to represent historical, near-term, mid-term and far-term (end-of-century) warming. Most major hydropower turbine flows are simulated well. Reservoir storage is also generally well simulated, mostly limited by the accuracy of inflow hydrology. System-wide hydropower generation is reduced by 9% with 6 °C warming. Most reductions in hydropower generation occur in the highly productive watersheds in the northern Sierra Nevada. The central Sierra Nevada sees less reduction in annual runoff and can adapt better to changes in runoff timing. Generation in southern watersheds is expected to decrease. System-wide, reservoirs adapt to capture earlier runoff, but mostly decrease in mean reservoir storage with warming due to decreasing annual runoff. Second, a multi-reservoir optimization model is developed using linear programming that considers the minimum instream flows (MIFs) and weekly down ramp rates (DRRs) in the Upper Yuba River in the northern Sierra Nevada. Weekly DRR constraints are used to mimic spring snowmelt flows, which are particularly important for downstream ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada but are currently missing due to the influence of dams. Trade-offs between MIFs, DRRs and hydropower are explored with air temperature warming (+0, 2, 4 and 6 °C). Under base case operations, mean annual hydropower generation increases slightly with 2 °C warming and decreases slightly with 6 °C warming. With 6 °C warming, the most ecologically beneficial MIF and DRR reduce hydropower generation 5.5% compared to base case operations and a historical climate, which has important implications for re-licensing the hydropower project. Finally, reservoir management for downstream temperatures is explored using a linear programming model to optimally release water from a reservoir using selective withdrawal. The objective function is to minimize deviations from desired downstream temperatures, which are specified to mimic the natural temperature regime in the river. One objective of this study was to develop a method that can be readily integrated into a basin-scale multi-reservoir optimization model using a network representation of system features. The second objective was to explore the potential use of reservoirs to maintain an ideal stream temperature regime to ameliorate the temperature effects of climate warming of air temperature. For proof-of-concept, the model is applied to Lake Spaulding in the Upper Yuba River. With selective withdrawal, the model hedges the release of cold water to decrease summer stream temperatures, but at a cost of warmer stream temperatures in the winter. Results also show that selective withdrawal can reduce, but not eliminate, the temperature effects of climate warming. The model can be extended to include other nearby reservoirs to optimally manage releases from multiple reservoirs for multiple downstream temperature targets in a highly interconnected system. While the outcomes of these studies contribute to our understanding of reservoir management and hydropower at the intersection of energy, water management, ecosystems, and climate warming, there are many opportunities to improve this work. Promising options for improving and building on the collective utility of these studies are presented.

Systematic high-resolution assessment of global hydropower potential.

PubMed

Hoes, Olivier A C; Meijer, Lourens J J; van der Ent, Ruud J; van de Giesen, Nick C

2017-01-01

Population growth, increasing energy demand and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves necessitate a search for sustainable alternatives for electricity generation. Hydropower could replace a large part of the contribution of gas and oil to the present energy mix. However, previous high-resolution estimates of hydropower potential have been local, and have yet to be applied on a global scale. This study is the first to formally present a detailed evaluation of the hydropower potential of each location, based on slope and discharge of each river in the world. The gross theoretical hydropower potential is approximately 52 PWh/year divided over 11.8 million locations. This 52 PWh/year is equal to 33% of the annually required energy, while the present energy production by hydropower plants is just 3% of the annually required energy. The results of this study: all potentially interesting locations for hydroelectric power plants, are available online.

Systematic high-resolution assessment of global hydropower potential

PubMed Central

van de Giesen, Nick C.

2017-01-01

Population growth, increasing energy demand and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves necessitate a search for sustainable alternatives for electricity generation. Hydropower could replace a large part of the contribution of gas and oil to the present energy mix. However, previous high-resolution estimates of hydropower potential have been local, and have yet to be applied on a global scale. This study is the first to formally present a detailed evaluation of the hydropower potential of each location, based on slope and discharge of each river in the world. The gross theoretical hydropower potential is approximately 52 PWh/year divided over 11.8 million locations. This 52 PWh/year is equal to 33% of the annually required energy, while the present energy production by hydropower plants is just 3% of the annually required energy. The results of this study: all potentially interesting locations for hydroelectric power plants, are available online. PMID:28178329

Development of the cycloidal propeller StECon as a new small hydropower plant for kinetic energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, J.; Jensen, J.; Wieland, J.; Lohr, W.; Metzger, J.; Stiller, H.-L.

2016-11-01

The StECon (Stiller Energy Converter) is a promising new small hydropower plant for kinetic energy. It is an invention of Mr. Hans-Ludwig Stiller and has several advantages compared to the technologies for the use of hydropower known for millennia. It runs completely submerged forwards and backwards, with horizontal or vertical axis and has a compact design by using a single or a double-sided planetary gear with optimum alignment to the flow direction. The possible applications include mobile and stationary tide and current generators as well as hybrid solutions, either as a generator or as a propulsion system. The high expectations have to be confirmed in a research project StEwaKorad at the University of Siegen. Aim of this research project is to investigate the performance and characteristics of the StECon as an energy converter for producing renewable energy from hydropower with low fall heights including sea currents.

Analysis of Existing Information on Ichthyoplankton Drift through Dams on the Upper Mississippi River,

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-02-01

Because of this strong legislative thrust , economic feasibility studies of small-scale hydropower development were performed for sites on the Upper...conditions. Pages 323-332 in H. Clepper, ed. Black bass biology and management. Sport Fishing Institute, Washington, D.C. Loar, J. M. 1982. Impacts of...mesh plankton net, except on June 25 when two samples were taken during daytime and one at night. Current velocities were estimated by measuring the

Development activities, challenges and prospects for the hydropower sector in Austria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagner, Beatrice; Hauer, Christoph; Habersack, Helmut

2017-04-01

This contribution intends to give an overview of hydropower development activities in Austria and deepen the knowledge on actual strategies and planning documents. Thereby, the focus is on a climate and energy policy based perspective, also analyzing economic trends at the hydropower sector due to energy market changes in the last years. This includes a comparison with other political strategies and programs dealing with hydropower exploitation based on selected countries. With respect to technology developments, a concise review on technological innovations, such as hydrokinetic energy conversion systems, and new constructive designs of conventional hydropower plants in Austria will be given. Moreover, potential impacts on environment and aquatic ecosystems are described. Finally, key challenges and prospects will be identified and discussed.

Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Xiao; Li, Hong-Yi; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel; ...

2017-10-10

We report that hydropower plays an important role as the global energy system moves towards a less carbon-intensive and sustainable future as promoted under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article provides a systematic review of the impacts from policy, climate change and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) nexus on hydropower development at global scale. Asia, Africa and Latin America are hotspots promoting hydropower development with capacity expansion, while Europe and North America focus on performance improvement and environment impacts mitigation. Climate change is projected to improve gross hydropower potential (GHP) at high latitude of North Hemisphere and tropical Africa and decrease thatmore » in the US, South Africa and south and central Europe. Analysis from W-E-F nexus highlights the importance of integrated approaches as well as cross-sectoral coordination so as to improve resources use efficiency and achieve sustainable hydropower development. In conclusion, these three factors together shape the future of hydropower and need to be considered for planning and operation purpose.« less

Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Xiao; Li, Hong-Yi; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel

We report that hydropower plays an important role as the global energy system moves towards a less carbon-intensive and sustainable future as promoted under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article provides a systematic review of the impacts from policy, climate change and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) nexus on hydropower development at global scale. Asia, Africa and Latin America are hotspots promoting hydropower development with capacity expansion, while Europe and North America focus on performance improvement and environment impacts mitigation. Climate change is projected to improve gross hydropower potential (GHP) at high latitude of North Hemisphere and tropical Africa and decrease thatmore » in the US, South Africa and south and central Europe. Analysis from W-E-F nexus highlights the importance of integrated approaches as well as cross-sectoral coordination so as to improve resources use efficiency and achieve sustainable hydropower development. In conclusion, these three factors together shape the future of hydropower and need to be considered for planning and operation purpose.« less

Impact of Different Time Series Streamflow Data on Energy Generation of a Run-of-River Hydropower Plant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kentel, E.; Cetinkaya, M. A.

2013-12-01

Global issues such as population increase, power supply crises, oil prices, social and environmental concerns have been forcing countries to search for alternative energy sources such as renewable energy to satisfy the sustainable development goals. Hydropower is the most common form of renewable energy in the world. Hydropower does not require any fuel, produces relatively less pollution and waste and it is a reliable energy source with relatively low operating cost. In order to estimate the average annual energy production of a hydropower plant, sufficient and dependable streamflow data is required. The goal of this study is to investigate impact of streamflow data on annual energy generation of Balkusan HEPP which is a small run-of-river hydropower plant at Karaman, Turkey. Two different stream gaging stations are located in the vicinity of Balkusan HEPP and these two stations have different observation periods: one from 1986 to 2004 and the other from 2000 to 2009. These two observation periods show different climatic characteristics. Thus, annual energy estimations based on data from these two different stations differ considerably. Additionally, neither of these stations is located at the power plant axis, thus streamflow observations from these two stream gaging stations need to be transferred to the plant axis. This requirement introduces further errors into energy estimations. Impact of different streamflow data and transfer of streamflow observations to plant axis on annual energy generation of a small hydropower plant is investigated in this study.

Optimization algorithms for large-scale multireservoir hydropower systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hiew, K.L.

Five optimization algorithms were vigorously evaluated based on applications on a hypothetical five-reservoir hydropower system. These algorithms are incremental dynamic programming (IDP), successive linear programing (SLP), feasible direction method (FDM), optimal control theory (OCT) and objective-space dynamic programming (OSDP). The performance of these algorithms were comparatively evaluated using unbiased, objective criteria which include accuracy of results, rate of convergence, smoothness of resulting storage and release trajectories, computer time and memory requirements, robustness and other pertinent secondary considerations. Results have shown that all the algorithms, with the exception of OSDP converge to optimum objective values within 1.0% difference from one another.more » The highest objective value is obtained by IDP, followed closely by OCT. Computer time required by these algorithms, however, differ by more than two orders of magnitude, ranging from 10 seconds in the case of OCT to a maximum of about 2000 seconds for IDP. With a well-designed penalty scheme to deal with state-space constraints, OCT proves to be the most-efficient algorithm based on its overall performance. SLP, FDM, and OCT were applied to the case study of Mahaweli project, a ten-powerplant system in Sri Lanka.« less

Study on the influence of small hydropower stations on the macroinvertebrates community-Take Nanhe River as a case, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Weihua; Li, Qingyun; Guo, Weijie; Wang, Zhenhua

2017-05-01

This study take Nahan River as a case to research the impacts of small hydropower stations on macroinvertebrates community. Results showed that a total of 13 macroinvertebrate samples was collected and contained 56 taxa belonging to 18 families and 35 genera. The influence of runoff regulation was more seriously than hydrological period. There were obvious zoning phenomenon of macroinvertebrates between reservoir, downdam reaches and natural reaches. From reservoir, downdam reaches to natural reaches, species abundance increased in turn. There are the least species in reservoir, the most in natural rivers. The reservoirs had the highest biomass and were quite different from those in downdam and natural reaches. However, there was no significant difference between different periods of hydropower station.

Examples of coupled human and environmental systems from the extractive industry and hydropower sector interfaces.

PubMed

Castro, Marcia C; Krieger, Gary R; Balge, Marci Z; Tanner, Marcel; Utzinger, Jürg; Whittaker, Maxine; Singer, Burton H

2016-12-20

Large-scale corporate projects, particularly those in extractive industries or hydropower development, have a history from early in the twentieth century of creating negative environmental, social, and health impacts on communities proximal to their operations. In many instances, especially for hydropower projects, the forced resettlement of entire communities was a feature in which local cultures and core human rights were severely impacted. These projects triggered an activist opposition that progressively expanded and became influential at both the host community level and with multilateral financial institutions. In parallel to, and spurred by, this activism, a shift occurred in 1969 with the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in the United States, which required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for certain types of industrial and infrastructure projects. Over the last four decades, there has been a global movement to develop a formal legal/regulatory EIA process for large industrial and infrastructure projects. In addition, social, health, and human rights impact assessments, with associated mitigation plans, were sequentially initiated and have increasingly influenced project design and relations among companies, host governments, and locally impacted communities. Often, beneficial community-level social, economic, and health programs have voluntarily been put in place by companies. These flagship programs can serve as benchmarks for community-corporate-government partnerships in the future. Here, we present examples of such positive phenomena and also focus attention on a myriad of challenges that still lie ahead.

Examples of coupled human and environmental systems from the extractive industry and hydropower sector interfaces

PubMed Central

Castro, Marcia C.; Krieger, Gary R.; Balge, Marci Z.; Tanner, Marcel; Utzinger, Jürg; Whittaker, Maxine; Singer, Burton H.

2016-01-01

Large-scale corporate projects, particularly those in extractive industries or hydropower development, have a history from early in the twentieth century of creating negative environmental, social, and health impacts on communities proximal to their operations. In many instances, especially for hydropower projects, the forced resettlement of entire communities was a feature in which local cultures and core human rights were severely impacted. These projects triggered an activist opposition that progressively expanded and became influential at both the host community level and with multilateral financial institutions. In parallel to, and spurred by, this activism, a shift occurred in 1969 with the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in the United States, which required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for certain types of industrial and infrastructure projects. Over the last four decades, there has been a global movement to develop a formal legal/regulatory EIA process for large industrial and infrastructure projects. In addition, social, health, and human rights impact assessments, with associated mitigation plans, were sequentially initiated and have increasingly influenced project design and relations among companies, host governments, and locally impacted communities. Often, beneficial community-level social, economic, and health programs have voluntarily been put in place by companies. These flagship programs can serve as benchmarks for community–corporate–government partnerships in the future. Here, we present examples of such positive phenomena and also focus attention on a myriad of challenges that still lie ahead. PMID:27791077

Methane emissions from a temperate agricultural reservoir

EPA Science Inventory

Dr. Jake Beaulieu was invited to present at the 2014 Green House Gas Emission Modeling workshop hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) Hydropower Implementing Agreement for Hydropower Technologies and Programs (IAHTP). The purpose of this workshop is to assemble an int...

Alpine hydropower in a low carbon economy: Assessing the local implication of global policies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anghileri, Daniela; Castelletti, Andrea; Burlando, Paolo

2016-04-01

In the global transition towards a more efficient and low-carbon economy, renewable energy plays a major role in displacing fossil fuels, meeting global energy demand while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In Europe, Variable Renewable Sources (VRS), such as wind and solar power sources, are becoming a relevant share of the generation portfolios in many countries. Beside the indisputable social and environmental advantages of VRS, on the short medium term the VRS-induced lowering energy prices and increasing price's volatility might challenge traditional power sources and, among them, hydropower production, because of smaller incomes and higher maintenance costs associated to a more flexible operation of power systems. In this study, we focus on the Swiss hydropower sector analysing how different low-carbon targets and strategies established at the Swiss and European level might affect energy price formation and thus impact - through hydropower operation - water availability and ecosystems services at the catchment scale. We combine a hydrological model to simulate future water availability and an electricity market model to simulate future evolution of energy prices based on official Swiss and European energy roadmaps and CO2 price trends in the European Union. We use Multi-Objective optimization techniques to design alternative hydropower reservoir operation strategies, aiming to maximise the hydropower companies' income or to provide reliable energy supply with respect to the energy demand. This integrated model allows analysing to which extent global low-carbon policies impact reservoir operation at the local scale, and to gain insight on how to prioritise compensation measures and/or adaptation strategies to mitigate the impact of VRS on hydropower companies in increasingly water constrained settings. Numerical results are shown for a real-world case study in the Swiss Alps.

Space-time dependence between energy sources and climate related energy production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engeland, Kolbjorn; Borga, Marco; Creutin, Jean-Dominique; Ramos, Maria-Helena; Tøfte, Lena; Warland, Geir

2014-05-01

The European Renewable Energy Directive adopted in 2009 focuses on achieving a 20% share of renewable energy in the EU overall energy mix by 2020. A major part of renewable energy production is related to climate, called "climate related energy" (CRE) production. CRE production systems (wind, solar, and hydropower) are characterized by a large degree of intermittency and variability on both short and long time scales due to the natural variability of climate variables. The main strategies to handle the variability of CRE production include energy-storage, -transport, -diversity and -information (smart grids). The three first strategies aim to smooth out the intermittency and variability of CRE production in time and space whereas the last strategy aims to provide a more optimal interaction between energy production and demand, i.e. to smooth out the residual load (the difference between demand and production). In order to increase the CRE share in the electricity system, it is essential to understand the space-time co-variability between the weather variables and CRE production under both current and future climates. This study presents a review of the literature that searches to tackle these problems. It reveals that the majority of studies deals with either a single CRE source or with the combination of two CREs, mostly wind and solar. This may be due to the fact that the most advanced countries in terms of wind equipment have also very little hydropower potential (Denmark, Ireland or UK, for instance). Hydropower is characterized by both a large storage capacity and flexibility in electricity production, and has therefore a large potential for both balancing and storing energy from wind- and solar-power. Several studies look at how to better connect regions with large share of hydropower (e.g., Scandinavia and the Alps) to regions with high shares of wind- and solar-power (e.g., green battery North-Sea net). Considering time scales, various studies consider wind and solar power production and their co-fluctuation at small time scales. The multi-scale nature of the variability is less studied, i.e., the potential adverse or favorable co-fluctuation at intermediate time scales involving water scarcity or abundance, is less present in the literature.Our review points out that it could be especially interesting to promote research on how the pronounced large-scale fluctuations in inflow to hydropower (intra-annual run-off) and smaller scale fluctuations in wind- and solar-power interact in an energy system. There is a need to better represent the profound difference between wind-, solar- and hydro-energy sources. On the one hand, they are all directly linked to the 2-D horizontal dynamics of meteorology. On the other hand, the branching structure of hydrological systems transforms this variability and governs the complex combination of natural inflows and reservoir storage.Finally, we note that the CRE production is, in addition to weather, also influenced by the energy system and market, i.e., the energy transport and demand across scales as well as changes of market regulation. The CRE production system lies thus in this nexus between climate, energy systems and market regulations. The work presented is part of the FP7 project COMPLEX (Knowledge based climate mitigation systems for a low carbon economy; http://www.complex.ac.uk)

The influence of climate change on Tanzania's hydropower sustainability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sperna Weiland, Frederiek; Boehlert, Brent; Meijer, Karen; Schellekens, Jaap; Magnell, Jan-Petter; Helbrink, Jakob; Kassana, Leonard; Liden, Rikard

2015-04-01

Economic costs induced by current climate variability are large for Tanzania and may further increase due to future climate change. The Tanzanian National Climate Change Strategy addressed the need for stabilization of hydropower generation and strengthening of water resources management. Increased hydropower generation can contribute to sustainable use of energy resources and stabilization of the national electricity grid. To support Tanzania the World Bank financed this study in which the impact of climate change on the water resources and related hydropower generation capacity of Tanzania is assessed. To this end an ensemble of 78 GCM projections from both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 datasets was bias-corrected and down-scaled to 0.5 degrees resolution following the BCSD technique using the Princeton Global Meteorological Forcing Dataset as a reference. To quantify the hydrological impacts of climate change by 2035 the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB was set-up for Tanzania at a resolution of 3 minutes and run with all 78 GCM datasets. From the full set of projections a probable (median) and worst case scenario (95th percentile) were selected based upon (1) the country average Climate Moisture Index and (2) discharge statistics of relevance to hydropower generation. Although precipitation from the Princeton dataset shows deviations from local station measurements and the global hydrological model does not perfectly reproduce local scale hydrographs, the main discharge characteristics and precipitation patterns are represented well. The modeled natural river flows were adjusted for water demand and irrigation within the water resources model RIBASIM (both historical values and future scenarios). Potential hydropower capacity was assessed with the power market simulation model PoMo-C that considers both reservoir inflows obtained from RIBASIM and overall electricity generation costs. Results of the study show that climate change is unlikely to negatively affect the average potential of future hydropower production; it will likely make hydropower more profitable. Yet, the uncertainty in climate change projections remains large and risks are significant, adaptation strategies should ideally consider a worst case scenario to ensure robust power generation. Overall a diversified power generation portfolio, anchored in hydropower and supported by other renewables and fossil fuel-based energy sources, is the best solution for Tanzania

Conflicting hydropower development and aquatic ecosystem conservation in Bhutan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wi, S.; Yang, Y. C. E.

2017-12-01

Hydropower is one of the clean energy sources that many Himalayan countries are eager to develop to solve their domestic energy deficit issue such as India, Nepal and Pakistan. Like other Himalayan countries, Bhutan also has a great potential for hydropower development. However, Bhutan is one of few countries that has a domestic energy surplus and export its hydropower generation to neighboring countries (mainly to India). Exporting hydropower is one of the major economic sources in Bhutan. However, constructions of dams and reservoirs for hydropower development inevitably involve habitat fragmentation, causing a conflict of interest with the pursuit of value in aquatic ecosystem conservation. The objectives of this study is to 1) develop a distributed hydrologic model with snow and glacier module to simulate the hydrologic regimes of seven major watersheds in Bhutan; 2) apply the hydrologic model to compute hydropower generation for all existing and potential dams; 3) evaluate cascade impacts of each individual dam on downstream regions by employing three hydro-ecological indicators: the River Connectivity Index (RCI), Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI), total affected river stretch (ARS), and 4) analyze the tradeoffs between hydropower generation and river connectivity at the national scale by means of a multiple objective genetic algorithm. Modeling results of three Pareto Fronts between ecological indicators and hydropower generation accompany with future energy export targets from the government can inform dam selections that maximizing hydropower generation while minimizing the impact on the aquatic ecosystem (Figure 1a). The impacts of climate change on these Pareto front are also explored to identify robust dam selection under changing temperature and precipitation (Figure 1b).

Hydropower in Southeast United States, -a Hydroclimatological Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engstrom, J.

2016-12-01

Hydropower is unique among renewable energy sources for the ability to store its fuel (water) in reservoirs. The relationship between discharge, macro-scale drivers, and production is complex since production depends not only on water availability, but also upon decisions made by the institution owning the facility that has to consider many competing interests including economics, drinking water supply, recreational uses, etc. This analysis shows that the hydropower plants in Southeast U.S. (AL, GA, NC, SC, and TN) exhibit considerable year to year variability in production. Although the hydroclimatology of the Southeast U.S. has been analyzed partially, no previous study has linked the region's hydroelectricity production to any reported causes of interannual hydroclimatological variability, as has been completed in other regions. Due to the current short-term hydroelectricity production forecasts, the water resource is not optimized from a hydropower perspective as electricity generating potential is not maximized. The results of this study highlight the amount of untapped hydroelectricity that could be produced if long term hydroclimate and large-scale climate drivers were considered in production forecasts.

Ecological consequences of hydropower development in Central America: Impacts of small dams and water diversion on neotropical stream fish assemblages

USGS Publications Warehouse

Anderson, Elizabeth P.; Freeman, Mary C.; Pringle, C.M.

2006-01-01

Small dams for hydropower have caused widespread alteration of Central American rivers, yet much of recent development has gone undocumented by scientists and conservationists. We examined the ecological effects of a small hydropower plant (Dona Julia Hydroelectric Center) on two low-order streams (the Puerto Viejo River and Quebradon stream) draining a mountainous area of Costa Rica. Operation of the Dona Julia plant has dewatered these streams, reducing discharge to ~ 10% of average annual flow. This study compared fish assemblage composition and aquatic habitat upstream and downstream of diversion dams on two streams and along a ~ 4 km dewatered reach of the Puerto Viejo River in an attempt to evaluate current instream flow recommendations for regulated Costa Rican streams. Our results indicated that fish assemblages directly upstream and downstream of the dam on the third order Puerto Viejo River were dissimilar, suggesting that the small dam (< 15 in high) hindered movement of fishes. Along the ~ 4 km dewatered reach of the Puerto Viejo River, species count increased with downstream distance from the dam. However, estimated species richness and overall fish abundance were not significantly correlated with downstream distance from the dam. Our results suggested that effects of stream dewatering may be most pronounced for a subset of species with more complex reproductive requirements, classified as equilibrium-type species based on their life-history. In the absence of changes to current operations, we expect that fish assemblages in the Puerto Viejo River will be increasingly dominated by opportunistic-type, colonizing fish species. Operations of many other small hydropower plants in Costa Rica and other parts of Central America mirror those of Doha Julia; the methods and results of this study may be applicable to some of those projects.

Biofuel Crops Expansion: Evaluating the Impact on the Agricultural Water Scarcity Costs and Hydropower Production with Hydro Economic Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marques, G.

2015-12-01

Biofuels such as ethanol from sugar cane remain an important element to help mitigate the impacts of fossil fuels on the atmosphere. However, meeting fuel demands with biofuels requires technological advancement for water productivity and scale of production. This may translate into increased water demands for biofuel crops and potential for conflicts with incumbent crops and other water uses including domestic, hydropower generation and environmental. It is therefore important to evaluate the effects of increased biofuel production on the verge of water scarcity costs and hydropower production. The present research applies a hydro-economic optimization model to compare different scenarios of irrigated biofuel and hydropower production, and estimates the potential tradeoffs. A case study from the Araguari watershed in Brazil is provided. These results should be useful to (i) identify improved water allocation among competing economic demands, (ii) support water management and operations decisions in watersheds where biofuels are expected to increase, and (iii) identify the impact of bio fuel production in the water availability and economic value. Under optimized conditions, adoption of sugar cane for biofuel production heavily relies on the opportunity costs of other crops and hydropower generation. Areas with a lower value crop groups seem more suitable to adopt sugar cane for biofuel when the price of ethanol is sufficiently high and the opportunity costs of hydropower productions are not conflicting. The approach also highlights the potential for insights in water management from studying regional versus larger scales bundled systems involving water use, food production and power generation.

Internal Flow of Contra-Rotating Small Hydroturbine at Off- Design Flow Rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

SHIGEMITSU, Toru; TAKESHIMA, Yasutoshi; OGAWA, Yuya; FUKUTOMI, Junichiro

2016-11-01

Small hydropower generation is one of important alternative energy, and enormous potential lie in the small hydropower. However, efficiency of small hydroturbines is lower than that of large one. Then, there are demands for small hydroturbines to keep high performance in wide flow rate range. Therefore, we adopted contra-rotating rotors, which can be expected to achieve high performance. In this research, performance of the contra-rotating small hydroturbine with 60mm casing diameter was investigated by an experiment and numerical analysis. Efficiency of the contra-rotating small hydroturbine was high in pico-hydroturbine and high efficiency could be kept in wide flow rate range, however the performance of a rear rotor decreased significantly in partial flow rates. Then, internal flow condition, which was difficult to measure experimentally, was investigated by the numerical flow analysis. Then, a relation between the performance and internal flow condition was considered by the numerical analysis result.

High-resolution assessment of global technical and economic hydropower potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gernaat, David E. H. J.; Bogaart, Patrick W.; Vuuren, Detlef P. van; Biemans, Hester; Niessink, Robin

2017-10-01

Hydropower is the most important renewable energy source to date, providing over 72% of all renewable electricity globally. Yet, only limited information is available on the global potential supply of hydropower and the associated costs. Here we provide a high-resolution assessment of the technical and economic potential of hydropower at a near-global scale. Using 15"×15" discharge and 3"×3" digital elevation maps, we built virtual hydropower installations at >3.8 million sites across the globe and calculated their potential using cost optimization methods. This way we identified over 60,000 suitable sites, which together represent a remaining global potential of 9.49 PWh yr-1 below US0.50 kWh-1. The largest remaining potential is found in Asia Pacific (39%), South America (25%) and Africa (24%), of which a large part can be produced at low cost (

Advanced Pumped Storage Hydropower and Ancillary Services Provision

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muljadi, Eduard; Gevorgian, Vahan; Mohanpurkar, Manish

This paper presents a high-level overview of the capability of advanced pumped storage hydropower to provide ancillary services including frequency regulation and oscillation damping. Type 3 and Type 4 generators are discussed. The examples given are for a small power system that uses a diesel generator as the main generator and a very large system that uses a gas turbine as the main generator.

Fuzzy multiobjective models for optimal operation of a hydropower system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teegavarapu, Ramesh S. V.; Ferreira, André R.; Simonovic, Slobodan P.

2013-06-01

Optimal operation models for a hydropower system using new fuzzy multiobjective mathematical programming models are developed and evaluated in this study. The models use (i) mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) with binary variables and (ii) integrate a new turbine unit commitment formulation along with water quality constraints used for evaluation of reservoir downstream impairment. Reardon method used in solution of genetic algorithm optimization problems forms the basis for development of a new fuzzy multiobjective hydropower system optimization model with creation of Reardon type fuzzy membership functions. The models are applied to a real-life hydropower reservoir system in Brazil. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are used to (i) solve the optimization formulations to avoid computational intractability and combinatorial problems associated with binary variables in unit commitment, (ii) efficiently address Reardon method formulations, and (iii) deal with local optimal solutions obtained from the use of traditional gradient-based solvers. Decision maker's preferences are incorporated within fuzzy mathematical programming formulations to obtain compromise operating rules for a multiobjective reservoir operation problem dominated by conflicting goals of energy production, water quality and conservation releases. Results provide insight into compromise operation rules obtained using the new Reardon fuzzy multiobjective optimization framework and confirm its applicability to a variety of multiobjective water resources problems.

Development and Evaluation of Season-ahead Precipitation and Streamflow Predictions for Sectoral Management in Western Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Block, P. J.; Alexander, S.; WU, S.

2017-12-01

Skillful season-ahead predictions conditioned on local and large-scale hydro-climate variables can provide valuable knowledge to farmers and reservoir operators, enabling informed water resource allocation and management decisions. In Ethiopia, the potential for advancing agriculture and hydropower management, and subsequently economic growth, is substantial, yet evidence suggests a weak adoption of prediction information by sectoral audiences. To address common critiques, including skill, scale, and uncertainty, probabilistic forecasts are developed at various scales - temporally and spatially - for the Finchaa hydropower dam and the Koga agricultural scheme in an attempt to promote uptake and application. Significant prediction skill is evident across scales, particularly for statistical models. This raises questions regarding other potential barriers to forecast utilization at community scales, which are also addressed.

Thermodynamic modelling of an onsite methanation reactor for upgrading producer gas from commercial small scale biomass gasifiers.

PubMed

Vakalis, S; Malamis, D; Moustakas, K

2018-06-15

Small scale biomass gasifiers have the advantage of having higher electrical efficiency in comparison to other conventional small scale energy systems. Nonetheless, a major drawback of small scale biomass gasifiers is the relatively poor quality of the producer gas. In addition, several EU Member States are seeking ways to store the excess energy that is produced from renewables like wind power and hydropower. A recent development is the storage of energy by electrolysis of water and the production of hydrogen in a process that is commonly known as "power-to-gas". The present manuscript proposes an onsite secondary reactor for upgrading producer gas by mixing it with hydrogen in order to initiate methanation reactions. A thermodynamic model has been developed for assessing the potential of the proposed methanation process. The model utilized input parameters from a representative small scale biomass gasifier and molar ratios of hydrogen from 1:0 to 1:4.1. The Villar-Cruise-Smith algorithm was used for minimizing the Gibbs free energy. The model returned the molar fractions of the permanent gases, the heating values and the Wobbe Index. For mixtures of hydrogen and producer gas on a 1:0.9 ratio the increase of the heating value is maximized with an increase of 78%. For ratios higher than 1:3, the Wobbe index increases significantly and surpasses the value of 30 MJ/Nm 3 . Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using climate response functions in analyzing electricity production variables. A case study from Norway.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tøfte, Lena S.; Martino, Sara; Mo, Birger

2016-04-01

This study analyses whether and to which extent today's hydropower system and reservoirs in Mid-Norway are able to balance new intermittent energy sources in the region, in both today's and tomorrow's climate. We also investigate if the electricity marked model EMPS gives us reasonable results also when run in a multi simulation mode without recalibration. Climate related energy (CRE) is influenced by the weather, the system for energy production and transport, and by market mechanisms. In the region of Mid-Norway, nearly all power demand is generated by hydro-electric facilities. Due to energy deficiency and limitations in the power grid the region experiences a deficit of electricity. The region is likely to experience considerable investments in wind power and small-scale hydropower and the transmission grid within and out of the region will probably be extended, so this situation might change. In addition climate change scenarios for the region agree on higher temperatures, more precipitation in total and a larger portion of the precipitation coming as rain instead of snow, as well as we expect slightly higher wind speed and more storms during the winter. Changing temperatures will also change the electricity demand. EMPS is a tool for forecasting and planning in electricity markets, developed for optimization and simulation of hydrothermal power systems with a considerable share of hydro power. It takes into account transport constraints and hydrological differences between major areas or regional subsystems. During optimization the objective is to minimize the expected cost in the whole system subject to all constraints. Incremental water values (marginal costs for hydropower) are computed for each area using stochastic dynamic programming. A heuristic approach is used to treat the interaction between areas. In the simulation part of the model total system costs are minimized week by week for each climate scenario in a linear problem formulation. A detailed representation of hydropower is included and total hydro power production for each area is calculated, and the production is distributed among all available plants within each area. During simulation, the demand is affected by prices and temperatures. 6 different infrastructure scenarios of wind and power line development are analyzed. The analyses are done by running EMPS calibrated for today's situation for 11*11*8 different combinations of altered weather variables (temperature, precipitation and wind) describing different climate change scenarios, finding the climate response function for every EMPS-variable according the electricity production, such as prices and income, energy balances (supply, consumption and trade), overflow losses, probability of curtailment etc .

Bridging the Information Gap: Remote Sensing and Micro Hydropower Feasibility in Data-Scarce Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muller, Marc Francois

Access to electricity remains an impediment to development in many parts of the world, particularly in rural areas with low population densities and prohibitive grid extension costs. In that context, community-scale run-of-river hydropower---micro-hydropower---is an attractive local power generation option, particularly in mountainous regions, where appropriate slope and runoff conditions occur. Despite their promise, micro hydropower programs have generally failed to have a significant impact on rural electrification in developing nations. In Nepal, despite very favorable conditions and approximately 50 years of experience, the technology supplies only 4% of the 10 million households that do not have access to the central electricity grid. These poor results point towards a major information gap between technical experts, who may lack the incentives or local knowledge needed to design appropriate systems for rural villages, and local users, who have excellent knowledge of the community but lack technical expertise to design and manage infrastructure. Both groups suffer from a limited basis for evidence-based decision making due to sparse environmental data available to support the technical components of infrastructure design. This dissertation draws on recent advances in remote sensing data, stochastic modeling techniques and open source platforms to bridge that information gap. Streamflow is a key environmental driver of hydropower production that is particularly challenging to model due to its stochastic nature and the complexity of the underlying natural processes. The first part of the dissertation addresses the general challenge of Predicting streamflow in Ungauged Basins (PUB). It first develops an algorithm to optimize the use of rain gauge observations to improve the accuracy of remote sensing precipitation measures. It then derives and validates a process-based model to estimate streamflow distribution in seasonally dry climates using the stochastic nature of rainfall, and proposes a novel geostatistical method to regionalize its parameters across the stream network. Although motivated by the needs of micro hydropower design in Nepal, these techniques represent contributions to the broader international challenge of PUB and can be applied worldwide. The economic drivers of rural electrification are then considered by presenting an econometric technique to estimate the cost function and demand curve of micro hydropower in Nepal. The empirical strategy uses topography-based instrumental variables to identify price elasticities. All developed methods are assembled in a computer tool, along with a search algorithm that uses a digital elevation model to optimize the placement of micro hydropower infrastructure. The tool---Micro Hydro [em]Power---is an open source application that can be accessed and operated on a web-browser (http://mfmul.shinyapps.io/mhpower). Its purpose is to assist local communities in the design and evaluation of micro hydropower alternatives in their locality, while using cost and demand information provided by local users to generate accurate feasibility maps at the national level, thus bridging the information gap.

Multi-scale Food Energy and Water Dynamics in the Blue Nile Highlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaitchik, B. F.; Simane, B.; Block, P. J.; Foltz, J.; Mueller-Mahn, D.; Gilioli, G.; Sciarretta, A.

2017-12-01

The Ethiopian highlands are often called the "water tower of Africa," giving rise to major transboundary rivers. Rapid hydropower development is quickly transforming these highlands into the "power plant of Africa" as well. For local people, however, they are first and foremost a land of small farms, devoted primarily to subsistence agriculture. Under changing climate, rapid national economic growth, and steadily increasing population and land pressures, these mountains and their inhabitants have become the focal point of a multi-scale food-energy-water nexus with significant implications across East Africa. Here we examine coupled natural-human system dynamics that emerge when basin and nation scale resource development strategies are superimposed on a local economy that is largely subsistence based. Sensitivity to local and remote climate shocks are considered, as is the role of Earth Observation in understanding and informing management of food-energy-water resources across scales.

Task 2 Report - A GIS-Based Technical Potential Assessment of Domestic Energy Resources for Electricity Generation.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Nathan; Grue, Nicholas W; Rosenlieb, Evan

The purpose of this report is to support the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines in assessing the technical potential of domestic energy resources for utility scale electricity generation in the Lao PDR. Specifically, this work provides assessments of technical potential, and associated maps of developable areas, for energy technologies of interest. This report details the methodology, assumptions, and datasets employed in this analysis to provide a transparent, replicable process for future analyses. The methodology and results presented are intended to be a fundamental input to subsequent decision making and energy planning-related analyses. This work concentrates on domestic energy resourcesmore » for utility-scale electricity generation and considers solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass, and coal resources. This work does not consider potentially imported energy resources (e.g., natural gas) or domestic energy resources that are not present in sufficient quantity for utility-scale generation (e.g., geothermal resources). A technical potential assessment of hydropower resources is currently not feasible due to the absence of required data including site-level assessments of multiple characteristics (e.g., geology environment and access) as well as spatial data on estimated non-exploited hydropower resources. This report is the second output of the Energy Alternatives Study for the Lao PDR, a collaboration led by the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines and the United States Agency for International Development under the auspices of the Smart Infrastructure for the Mekong program. The Energy Alternatives Study is composed of five successive tasks that collectively support the project's goals. This work is focused on Task 2 - Assess technical potential of domestic energy resources for electricity generation. The work was carried out by a team from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines and other Lao power sector stakeholders. and datasets employed in this analysis to provide a transparent, replicable process for future analyses. The methodology and results presented are intended to be a fundamental input to subsequent decision making and energy planning-related analyses. This work concentrates on domestic energy resources for utility-scale electricity generation and considers solar photovoltaic, wind, biomass, and coal resources. This work does not consider potentially imported energy resources (e.g., natural gas) or domestic energy resources that are not present in sufficient quantity for utility-scale generation (e.g., geothermal resources). A technical potential assessment of hydropower resources is currently not feasible due to the absence of required data including site-level assessments of multiple characteristics (e.g., geology environment and access) as well as spatial data on estimated non-exploited hydropower resources.« less

Developing hydropower in Washington state. Volume 2: An electricity marketing manual

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

James, J. W.; McCoy, G. A.

1982-03-01

An electricity marketing manual for the potential small and micro-hydroelectric project developer within the state of Washington is presented. Public utility regulatory policies (PURPA) requires electric utilities to interconnect with and pay a rate based on their full avoided costs for the purchase of electrical output from qualifying small power production facilities. The determination of avoided costs, as business organizational considerations, utility interface concerns, interconnection requirements, metering options, and liability and wheeling are discussed. The utility responses are summarized, legislation which is of importance to hydropower developers and the powers and functions of the authorities responsible for enforcing the mandate of PURPA are described.

New Stream-reach Development (NSD): A Comprehensive Assessment of Hydropower Energy Potential in the United States Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kao, Shih-Chieh

2014-04-25

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program tasked Oak Ridge National Laboratory with evaluating the new stream-reach development (NSD) resource potential of more than 3 million U.S. streams in order to help individuals and organizations evaluate the feasibility of developing new hydropower sources in the United States.

A modeling tool to support decision making in future hydropower development in Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vicuna, S.; Hermansen, C.; Cerda, J. P.; Olivares, M. A.; Gomez, T. I.; Toha, E.; Poblete, D.; Mao, L.; Falvey, M. J.; Pliscoff, P.; Melo, O.; Lacy, S.; Peredo, M.; Marquet, P. A.; Maturana, J.; Gironas, J. A.

2017-12-01

Modeling tools support planning by providing transparent means to assess the outcome of natural resources management alternatives within technical frameworks in the presence of conflicting objectives. Such tools, when employed to model different scenarios, complement discussion in a policy-making context. Examples of practical use of this type of tool exist, such as the Canadian public forest management, but are not common, especially in the context of developing countries. We present a tool to support the selection from a portfolio of potential future hydropower projects in Chile. This tool, developed by a large team of researchers under the guidance of the Chilean Energy Ministry, is especially relevant in the context of evident regionalism, skepticism and change in societal values in a country that has achieved a sustained growth alongside increased demands from society. The tool operates at a scale of a river reach, between 1-5 km long, on a domain that can be defined according to the scale needs of the related discussion, and its application can vary from river basins to regions or other spatial configurations that may be of interest. The tool addresses both available hydropower potential and the existence (inferred or observed) of other ecological, social, cultural and productive characteristics of the territory which are valuable to society, and provides a means to evaluate their interaction. The occurrence of each of these other valuable characteristics in the territory is measured by generating a presence-density score for each. Considering the level of constraint each characteristic imposes on hydropower development, they are weighted against each other and an aggregate score is computed. With this information, optimal trade-offs are computed between additional hydropower capacity and valuable local characteristics over the entire domain, using the classical knapsack 0-1 optimization algorithm. Various scenarios of different weightings and hydropower development targets are tested and compared. The results illustrate the capabilities of the tool to identify promising hydropower development strategies and to aid public policy discussions aimed at establishing incentives and regulations, and therefore provide decision makers with supporting material allowing a more informed discussion.

Climate change impacts on high-elevation hydroelectricity in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madani, Kaveh; Guégan, Marion; Uvo, Cintia B.

2014-03-01

While only about 30% of California's usable water storage capacity lies at higher elevations, high-elevation (above 300 m) hydropower units generate, on average, 74% of California's in-state hydroelectricity. In general, high-elevation plants have small man-made reservoirs and rely mainly on snowpack. Their low built-in storage capacity is a concern with regard to climate warming. Snowmelt is expected to shift to earlier in the year, and the system may not be able to store sufficient water for release in high-demand periods. Previous studies have explored the climate warming effects on California's high-elevation hydropower by focusing on the supply side (exploring the effects of hydrological changes on generation and revenues) ignoring the warming effects on hydroelectricity demand and pricing. This study extends the previous work by simultaneous consideration of climate change effects on high-elevation hydropower supply and pricing in California. The California's Energy-Based Hydropower Optimization Model (EBHOM 2.0) is applied to evaluate the adaptability of California's high-elevation hydropower system to climate warming, considering the warming effects on hydroelectricity supply and pricing. The model's results relative to energy generation, energy spills, reservoir energy storage, and average shadow prices of energy generation and storage capacity expansion are examined and discussed. These results are compared with previous studies to emphasize the need to consider climate change effects on hydroelectricity demand and pricing when exploring the effects of climate change on hydropower operations.

Estimating the Effects of Climate Change on Federal Hydropower and Power Marketing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sale, Michael J; Kao, Shih-Chieh; Uria Martinez, Rocio

The U.S. Department of Energy is currently preparing an assessment of the effects of climate change on federal hydropower, as directed by Congress in Section 9505 of the Secure Water Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11). This paper describes the assessment approach being used in a Report to Congress currently being prepared by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The 9505 assessment will examine climate change effects on water available for hydropower operations and the future power supplies marketed from federal hydropower projects. It will also include recommendations from the Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) on potential changes in operation or contracting practices thatmore » could address these effects and risks of climate change. Potential adaption and mitigation strategies will also be identified. Federal hydropower comprises approximately half of the U.S. hydropower portfolio. The results from the 9505 assessment will promote better understanding among federal dam owners/operators of the sensitivity of their facilities to water availability, and it will provide a basis for planning future actions that will enable adaptation to climate variability and change. The end-users of information are Congressional members, their staff, the PMAs and their customers, federal dam owners/operators, and the DOE Water Power Program.« less

Analysis of environmental issues related to small-scale hydroelectric development IV: fish mortality resulting from turbine passage

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turbak, S. C.; Reichle, D. R.; Shriner, C. R.

1981-01-01

This document presents a state-of-the-art review of literature concerning turbine-related fish mortality. The review discusses conventional and, to a lesser degree, pumped-storage (reversible) hydroelectric facilities. Much of the research on conventional facilities discussed in this report deals with studies performed in the Pacific Northwest and covers both prototype and model studies. Research conducted on Kaplan and Francis turbines during the 1950s and 1960s has been extensively reviewed and is discussed. Very little work on turbine-related fish mortality has been undertaken with newer turbine designs developed for more modern small-scale hydropower facilities; however, one study on a bulb unit (Kaplan runner)more » has recently been released. In discussing turbine-related fish mortality at pumped-storage facilities, much of the literature relates to the Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant. As such, it is used as the principal facility in discussing research concerning pumped storage.« less

Climate impacts on hydropower and consequences for global electricity supply investment needs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turner, Sean W. D.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Kim, Son H.

Recent progress in global scale hydrological and dam modeling has allowed for the study of climate change impacts on global hydropower production. Here we explore the possible consequences of these impacts for the electricity supply sector. Regional hydropower projections are developed for two emissions scenarios by forcing a coupled global hydrological and dam model with downscaled, bias-corrected climate realizations derived from sixteen general circulation models. Consequent impacts on power sector composition and associated emissions and investment costs are explored using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). Changes in hydropower generation resulting from climate change can shift power demands onto andmore » away from carbon intensive technologies, resulting in significant impacts on power sector CO2 emissions for certain world regions—primarily those located in Latin America, as well as Canada and parts of Europe. Reduced impacts of climate change on hydropower production under a low emissions scenario coincide with increased costs of marginal power generating capacity—meaning impacts on power sector investment costs are similar for high and low emissions scenarios. Individual countries where impacts on investment costs imply significant risks or opportunities are identified.« less

Determining the effect of key climate drivers on global hydropower production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galelli, S.; Ng, J. Y.; Lee, D.; Block, P. J.

2017-12-01

Accounting for about 17% of total global electrical power production, hydropower is arguably the world's main renewable energy source and a key asset to meet Paris climate agreements. A key component of hydropower production is water availability, which depends on both precipitation and multiple drivers of climate variability acting at different spatial and temporal scales. To understand how these drivers impact global hydropower production, we study the relation between four patterns of ocean-atmosphere climate variability (i.e., El Niño Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation) and monthly time series of electrical power production for over 1,500 hydropower reservoirs—obtained via simulation with a high-fidelity dam model forced with 20th century climate conditions. Notably significant relationships between electrical power productions and climate variability are found in many climate sensitive regions globally, including North and South America, East Asia, West Africa, and Europe. Coupled interactions from multiple, simultaneous climate drivers are also evaluated. Finally, we highlight the importance of using these climate drivers as an additional source of information within reservoir operating rules where the skillful predictability of inflow exists.

Seasonal-Scale Optimization of Conventional Hydropower Operations in the Upper Colorado System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bier, A.; Villa, D.; Sun, A.; Lowry, T. S.; Barco, J.

2011-12-01

Sandia National Laboratories is developing the Hydropower Seasonal Concurrent Optimization for Power and the Environment (Hydro-SCOPE) tool to examine basin-wide conventional hydropower operations at seasonal time scales. This tool is part of an integrated, multi-laboratory project designed to explore different aspects of optimizing conventional hydropower operations. The Hydro-SCOPE tool couples a one-dimensional reservoir model with a river routing model to simulate hydrology and water quality. An optimization engine wraps around this model framework to solve for long-term operational strategies that best meet the specific objectives of the hydrologic system while honoring operational and environmental constraints. The optimization routines are provided by Sandia's open source DAKOTA (Design Analysis Kit for Optimization and Terascale Applications) software. Hydro-SCOPE allows for multi-objective optimization, which can be used to gain insight into the trade-offs that must be made between objectives. The Hydro-SCOPE tool is being applied to the Upper Colorado Basin hydrologic system. This system contains six reservoirs, each with its own set of objectives (such as maximizing revenue, optimizing environmental indicators, meeting water use needs, or other objectives) and constraints. This leads to a large optimization problem with strong connectedness between objectives. The systems-level approach used by the Hydro-SCOPE tool allows simultaneous analysis of these objectives, as well as understanding of potential trade-offs related to different objectives and operating strategies. The seasonal-scale tool will be tightly integrated with the other components of this project, which examine day-ahead and real-time planning, environmental performance, hydrologic forecasting, and plant efficiency.

Effects of massive wind power integration on short-term water resource management in central Chile - a grid-wide study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haas, J.; Olivares, M. A.; Palma, R.

2013-12-01

In central Chile, water from reservoirs and streams is mainly used for irrigation and power generation. Hydropower reservoirs operation is particularly challenging because: i) decisions at each plant impact the entire power system, and ii) the existence of large storage capacity implies inter-temporal ties. An Independent System Operator (ISO) decides the grid-wide optimal allocation of water for power generation, under irrigation-related constraints. To account for the long-term opportunity cost of water, a future cost function is determined and used in the short term planning. As population growth and green policies demand increasing levels of renewable energy in power systems, deployment of wind farms and solar plants is rising quickly. However, their power output is highly fluctuating on short time scales, affecting the operation of power plants, particularly those fast responding units as hydropower reservoirs. This study addresses these indirect consequences of massive introduction of green energy sources on reservoir operations. Short-term reservoir operation, under different wind penetration scenarios, is simulated using a replica of Chile's ISO's scheduling optimization tools. Furthermore, an ongoing study is exploring the potential to augment the capacity the existing hydro-power plants to better cope with the balancing needs due to a higher wind power share in the system. As reservoir releases determine to a great extent flows at downstream locations, hourly time series of turbined flows for 24-hour periods were computed for selected combinations between new wind farms and increased capacity of existing hydropower plants. These time series are compiled into subdaily hydrologic alteration (SDHA) indexes (Zimmerman et al, 2010). The resulting sample of indexes is then analyzed using duration curves. Results show a clear increase in the SDHA for every reservoir of the system as more fluctuating renewables are integrated into the system. High-fluctuation events become more frequent. While the main load-following reservoirs are very susceptible to even small levels of additional wind power, the remaining withstand greater amounts before producing a significant SDHA. The additional effect of augmented installed capacity of existing hydropower plants on the SDHA is modest. The increase in SDHA calls for alternative operational constraints beyond the current practice based exclusively on minimum instream flows. Previous research by this group has shown the potential of maximum ramping rates constraints to efficiently achieve improvement in the SDHA. This alternative is being studied as part of a project currently in progress. This may contribute to make hydropower projects more socially acceptable and environmentally sound.

The influence of mechanical gear on the efficiency of small hydropower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferenc, Zbigniew; Sambor, Aleksandra

2017-11-01

Pursuant to the "Strategy of development of renewable energy", an increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the national fuel-energy balance up to 14% by 2020 is planned in the structure of usage of primary energy carriers. The change in the participation of the clean energy in the energy balance may be done not only by the erection of new and renovation of the already existing plants, but also through an improvement of their energetic efficiency. The study presents the influence of the mechanical gear used on the quantity of energy produced by a small hydropower on the basis of SHP Rzepcze in Opole province in 2005-2010. The primary kinematic system was composed of a Francis turbine of a vertical axis, a toothed intersecting axis gear of 1:1 ratio, a belt gear of a double ratio. After a modernization the system was simplified by means of reducing the intersecting axis gear and the double ratio of the belt gear. The new kinematic system utilized a single-ratio belt gear of a vertical axis. After the kinematic system was rearranged, a significant improvement of efficiency of the small hydropower was concluded, which translates into an increase of the amount of energy produced.

Wind Power Today and Tomorrow

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

Wind Power Today and Tomorrow is an annual publication that provides an overview of the wind research conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program. The purpose of Wind Power Today and Tomorrow is to show how DOE supports wind turbine research and deployment in hopes of furthering the advancement of wind technologies that produce clean, low-cost, reliable energy. Content objectives include: educate readers about the advantages and potential for widespread deployment of wind energy; explain the program's objectives and goals; describe the program's accomplishments in research and application; examine the barriers to widespread deployment; describemore » the benefits of continued research and development; facilitate technology transfer; and attract cooperative wind energy projects with industry. This 2003 edition of the program overview also includes discussions about wind industry growth in 2003, how DOE is taking advantage of low wind speed region s through advancing technology, and distributed applications for small wind turbines.« less

Achieving a 100% Renewable Grid: Operating Electric Power Systems with Extremely High Levels of Variable Renewable Energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kroposki, Benjamin; Johnson, Brian; Zhang, Yingchen

What does it mean to achieve a 100% renewable grid? Several countries already meet or come close to achieving this goal. Iceland, for example, supplies 100% of its electricity needs with either geothermal or hydropower. Other countries that have electric grids with high fractions of renewables based on hydropower include Norway (97%), Costa Rica (93%), Brazil (76%), and Canada (62%). Hydropower plants have been used for decades to create a relatively inexpensive, renewable form of energy, but these systems are limited by natural rainfall and geographic topology. Around the world, most good sites for large hydropower resources have already beenmore » developed. So how do other areas achieve 100% renewable grids? Variable renewable energy (VRE), such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, will be a major contributor, and with the reduction in costs for these technologies during the last five years, large-scale deployments are happening around the world.« less

Optimizing Wind And Hydropower Generation Within Realistic Reservoir Operating Policy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magee, T. M.; Clement, M. A.; Zagona, E. A.

2012-12-01

Previous studies have evaluated the benefits of utilizing the flexibility of hydropower systems to balance the variability and uncertainty of wind generation. However, previous hydropower and wind coordination studies have simplified non-power constraints on reservoir systems. For example, some studies have only included hydropower constraints on minimum and maximum storage volumes and minimum and maximum plant discharges. The methodology presented here utilizes the pre-emptive linear goal programming optimization solver in RiverWare to model hydropower operations with a set of prioritized policy constraints and objectives based on realistic policies that govern the operation of actual hydropower systems, including licensing constraints, environmental constraints, water management and power objectives. This approach accounts for the fact that not all policy constraints are of equal importance. For example target environmental flow levels may not be satisfied if it would require violating license minimum or maximum storages (pool elevations), but environmental flow constraints will be satisfied before optimizing power generation. Additionally, this work not only models the economic value of energy from the combined hydropower and wind system, it also captures the economic value of ancillary services provided by the hydropower resources. It is recognized that the increased variability and uncertainty inherent with increased wind penetration levels requires an increase in ancillary services. In regions with liberalized markets for ancillary services, a significant portion of hydropower revenue can result from providing ancillary services. Thus, ancillary services should be accounted for when determining the total value of a hydropower system integrated with wind generation. This research shows that the end value of integrated hydropower and wind generation is dependent on a number of factors that can vary by location. Wind factors include wind penetration level, variability due to geographic distribution of wind resources, and forecast error. Electric power system factors include the mix of thermal generation resources, available transmission, demand patterns, and market structures. Hydropower factors include relative storage capacity, reservoir operating policies and hydrologic conditions. In addition, the wind, power system, and hydropower factors are often interrelated because stochastic weather patterns can simultaneously influence wind generation, power demand, and hydrologic inflows. One of the central findings is that the sensitivity of the model to changes cannot be performed one factor at a time because the impact of the factors is highly interdependent. For example, the net value of wind generation may be very sensitive to changes in transmission capacity under some hydrologic conditions, but not at all under others.

The Future of Hydropower: Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change, Energy Prices and New Storage Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaudard, Ludovic; Madani, Kaveh; Romerio, Franco

2016-04-01

The future of hydropower depends on various drivers, and in particular on climate change, electricity market evolution and innovation in new storage technologies. Their impacts on the power plants' profitability can widely differ in regards of scale, timing, and probability of occurrence. In this respect, the risk should not be expressed only in terms of expected revenue, but also of uncertainty. These two aspects must be considered to assess the future of hydropower. This presentation discusses the impacts of climate change, electricity market volatility and competing energy storage's technologies and quantifies them in terms of annual revenue. Our simulations integrate a glacio-hydrological model (GERM) with various electricity market data and models (mean reversion and jump diffusion). The medium (2020-50) and long-term (2070-2100) are considered thanks to various greenhouse gas scenarios (A1B, A2 and RCP3PD) and the stochastic approach for the electricity prices. An algorithm named "threshold acceptance" is used to optimize the reservoir operations. The impacts' scale, and the related uncertainties are presented for Mauvoisin, which is a storage-hydropower plant situated in the Swiss Alps, and two generic pure pumped-storage installations, which are assessed with the prices of 17 European electricity markets. The discussion will highlight the key differences between the impacts brought about by the drivers.

Understanding future emissions from low-carbon power systems by integration of life-cycle assessment and integrated energy modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pehl, Michaja; Arvesen, Anders; Humpenöder, Florian; Popp, Alexander; Hertwich, Edgar G.; Luderer, Gunnar

2017-12-01

Both fossil-fuel and non-fossil-fuel power technologies induce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to their embodied energy requirements for construction and operation, and upstream CH4 emissions. Here, we integrate prospective life-cycle assessment with global integrated energy-economy-land-use-climate modelling to explore life-cycle emissions of future low-carbon power supply systems and implications for technology choice. Future per-unit life-cycle emissions differ substantially across technologies. For a climate protection scenario, we project life-cycle emissions from fossil fuel carbon capture and sequestration plants of 78-110 gCO2eq kWh-1, compared with 3.5-12 gCO2eq kWh-1 for nuclear, wind and solar power for 2050. Life-cycle emissions from hydropower and bioenergy are substantial (˜100 gCO2eq kWh-1), but highly uncertain. We find that cumulative emissions attributable to upscaling low-carbon power other than hydropower are small compared with direct sectoral fossil fuel emissions and the total carbon budget. Fully considering life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions has only modest effects on the scale and structure of power production in cost-optimal mitigation scenarios.

Economic implications of climate-driven trends in global hydropower generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, S. W. D.; Galelli, S.; Hejazi, M. I.; Clarke, L.; Edmonds, J.; Kim, S. H.

2017-12-01

Recent progress in global scale hydrological and dam modeling has allowed for the study of climate change impacts on global hydropower production. Here we explore how these impacts could affect the composition of global electricity supply, and what those changes could mean for power sector emissions and investment needs in the 21st century. Regional hydropower projections are developed for two emissions scenarios by forcing a coupled global hydrological and dam model (1593 major hydropower dams; 54% global installed capacity) with downscaled, bias-corrected climate realizations derived from sixteen General Circulation Models (GCMs). To incorporate possible non-linearity in hydropower response to climate change, dam simulations incorporate plant specifications (e.g., maximum turbine flow), reservoir storage dynamics, reservoir bathymetry, evaporation losses and bespoke, site specific operations. Consequent impacts on regional and global-level electricity generation and associated emissions and investment costs are examined using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). We show that changes in hydropower generation resulting from climate change can shift power demands onto and away from carbon intensive technologies, resulting in significant impacts on CO2 emissions for several regions. Many of these countries are also highly vulnerable to investment impacts (costs of new electricity generating facilities to make up for shortfalls in hydro), which in some cases amount to tens of billions of dollars by 2100. The Balkans region—typified by weak economies in a drying region that relies heavily on hydropower—emerges as the most vulnerable. Reduced impacts of climate change on hydropower production under a low emissions scenario coincide with increased costs of marginal power generating capacity (low emissions requires greater uptake of clean generating technologies, which are more expensive). This means impacts on power sector investment costs are similar for high and low emissions scenarios.

Land Use Change Impacts to Flows and Hydropower at the Southern Fringe of the Brazilian Amazon: A Regional, Empirical Study of Land-Water-Energy Nexus Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levy, M. C.; Thompson, S. E.; Cohn, A.

2014-12-01

Land use/cover change (LUCC) has occurred extensively in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest-savanna transition. Agricultural development-driven LUCC at regional scales can alter surface energy budgets, evapotranspiration (ET) and rainfall; these hydroclimatic changes impact streamflows, and thus hydropower. To date, there is only limited empirical understanding of these complex land-water-energy nexus dynamics, yet understanding is important to developing countries where both agriculture and hydropower are expanding and intensifying. To observe these changes and their interconnections, we synthesize a novel combination of ground network, remotely sensed, and empirically modeled data for LUCC, rainfall, flows, and hydropower potential. We connect the extensive temporal and spatial trends in LUCC occurring from 2000-2012 (and thus observable in the satellite record) to long-term historical flow records and run-of-river hydropower generation potential estimates. Changes in hydrologic condition are observed in terms of dry and wet season moments, extremes, and flow duration curves. Run-of-river hydropower generation potential is modeled at basin gauge points using equation models parameterized with literature-based low-head turbine efficiencies, and simple algorithms establishing optimal head and capacity from elevation and flows, respectively. Regression analyses are used to demonstrate a preliminary causal analysis of LUCC impacts to flow and energy, and discuss extension of the analysis to ungauged basins. The results are transferable to tropical and transitional forest regions worldwide where simultaneous agricultural and hydropower development potentially compete for coupled components of regional water cycles, and where policy makers and planners require an understanding of LUCC impacts to hydroclimate-dependent industries and ecosystems.

Power Authority calls for wise investment in hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yould, E.P.

Wise investment in hydropower is one of the most valuable long-term economic actions the state of Alaska can take. A review of the hydro projects shows that investigations needed for construction of the Susitna hydroelectric project will be initiated, while Green Lake and Solomon Gulch projects at Sitka and Valdez will enter their second construction season. Swan Lake and Terror Lake hydropower construction for Ketchikan and Kodiak will also be initiated in 1980 followed by Tyee Lake hydropower for Petersburg and Wrangell. Projects still under investigation which may prove feasible for construction in the future are at Cordova, Homer, Seward,more » Bristol Bay, the Tlingit-Haida area, the lower Kuskokwim and Yukon area, and at some smaller rural communities. Other communities may be able to develop wood or peat fueled generation, wile still others might be able to develop small tidal or wind power generation. The Alaska Power Authority is attempting to expedite these projects, and the end result should be a significant degree of electrical energy independence by the end of the next decade.« less

Tapping hidden hydropower potential in Swiss Alpine catchments in the context of the planned nuclear power phase out

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos, Ana Clara; Schaefli, Bettina; Manso, Pedro; Schleiss, Anton; Portela, Maria Manuela; Rinaldo, Andrea

2015-04-01

In its Energy Strategy 2050, Switzerland is revising its energy perspectives with a strong focus on renewable sources of energy and in particular hydropower. In this context, the Swiss Government funded a number of competence centers for energy research (SCCERs), including one on the Supply of Energy (SCCER-SoE), which develops fundamental research and innovative solutions in geoenergies and hydropower . Hydropower is already the major energy source in Switzerland, corresponding to approximately 55% of the total national electricity production (which was 69 TWh in 2014). The Energy Strategy 2050 foresees at least a net increase by 1.53 TWh/year in average hydrological conditions, in a context were almost all major river systems are already exploited and a straightforward application of recent environmental laws will impact (reduce) current hydropower production. In this contribution, we present the roadmap of the SCCER-SoE and an overview of our strategy to unravel currently non-exploited hydropower potential, in particular in river systems that are already used for hydropower production. The aim is hereby to quantify non-exploited natural flows, unnecessary water spills or storage volume deficits, whilst considering non-conventional approaches to water resources valuation and management. Such a better understanding of the current potential is paramount to justify future scenarios of adaptation of the existing hydropower infrastructure combining the increase of storage capacity with new connections between existing reservoirs, heightening or strengthening existing dams, increasing the operational volume of natural lakes (including new glacier lakes), or by building new dams. Tapping hidden potential shall also require operational changes to benefit from new flow patterns emerging under an evolving climate and in particular in the context of the ongoing glacier retreat. The paper shall present a broad view over the mentioned issues and first conclusions of ongoing research at the country scale.

Optimization of Large-Scale Daily Hydrothermal System Operations With Multiple Objectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jian; Cheng, Chuntian; Shen, Jianjian; Cao, Rui; Yeh, William W.-G.

2018-04-01

This paper proposes a practical procedure for optimizing the daily operation of a large-scale hydrothermal system. The overall procedure optimizes a monthly model over a period of 1 year and a daily model over a period of up to 1 month. The outputs from the monthly model are used as inputs and boundary conditions for the daily model. The models iterate and update when new information becomes available. The monthly hydrothermal model uses nonlinear programing (NLP) to minimize fuel costs, while maximizing hydropower production. The daily model consists of a hydro model, a thermal model, and a combined hydrothermal model. The hydro model and thermal model generate the initial feasible solutions for the hydrothermal model. The two competing objectives considered in the daily hydrothermal model are minimizing fuel costs and minimizing thermal emissions. We use the constraint method to develop the trade-off curve (Pareto front) between these two objectives. We apply the proposed methodology on the Yunnan hydrothermal system in China. The system consists of 163 individual hydropower plants with an installed capacity of 48,477 MW and 11 individual thermal plants with an installed capacity of 12,400 MW. We use historical operational records to verify the correctness of the model and to test the robustness of the methodology. The results demonstrate the practicability and validity of the proposed procedure.

Climate impacts on hydropower and consequences for global electricity supply investment needs

DOE PAGES

Turner, Sean W. D.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Kim, Son H.; ...

2017-11-15

Climate change is projected to increase hydropower generation in some parts of the world and decrease it in others. Here we explore the possible consequences of these impacts for the electricity supply sector at the global scale. Regional hydropower projections are developed by forcing a coupled global hydrological and dam model with downscaled, bias-corrected climate realizations. Consequent impacts on power sector composition and associated emissions and investment costs are explored using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). We find that climate-driven changes in hydropower generation may shift power demands onto and away from carbon intensive technologies. This then causes significantlymore » altered power sector CO 2 emissions in several hydro-dependent regions, although the net global impact is modest. For drying regions, we estimate a global, cumulative investment need of approximately one trillion dollars (±$500 billion) this century to make up for deteriorated hydropower generation caused by climate change. Total investments avoided are of a similar magnitude across regions projected to experience increased precipitation. Investment risks and opportunities are concentrated in hydro-dependent countries for which significant climate change is expected. Various countries throughout the Balkans, Latin America and Southern Africa are most vulnerable, whilst Norway, Canada, and Bhutan emerge as clear beneficiaries.« less

Climate impacts on hydropower and consequences for global electricity supply investment needs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turner, Sean W. D.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Kim, Son H.

Climate change is projected to increase hydropower generation in some parts of the world and decrease it in others. Here we explore the possible consequences of these impacts for the electricity supply sector at the global scale. Regional hydropower projections are developed by forcing a coupled global hydrological and dam model with downscaled, bias-corrected climate realizations. Consequent impacts on power sector composition and associated emissions and investment costs are explored using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). We find that climate-driven changes in hydropower generation may shift power demands onto and away from carbon intensive technologies. This then causes significantlymore » altered power sector CO 2 emissions in several hydro-dependent regions, although the net global impact is modest. For drying regions, we estimate a global, cumulative investment need of approximately one trillion dollars (±$500 billion) this century to make up for deteriorated hydropower generation caused by climate change. Total investments avoided are of a similar magnitude across regions projected to experience increased precipitation. Investment risks and opportunities are concentrated in hydro-dependent countries for which significant climate change is expected. Various countries throughout the Balkans, Latin America and Southern Africa are most vulnerable, whilst Norway, Canada, and Bhutan emerge as clear beneficiaries.« less

Lost opportunities and future avenues to reconcile hydropower and sediment transport in the Mekong Basin through optimal sequencing of dam portfolios.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castelletti, A.; Schmitt, R. J. P.; Bizzi, S.; Kondolf, G. M.

2017-12-01

Dams are essential to meet growing water and energy demands. While dams cumulatively impact downstream rivers on network-scales, dam development is mostly based on ad-hoc economic and environmental assessments of single dams. Here, we provide evidence that replacing this ad-hoc approach with early strategic planning of entire dam portfolios can greatly reduce conflicts between economic and environmental objectives of dams. In the Mekong Basin (800,000km2), 123 major dam sites (status-quo: 56 built and under construction) could generate 280,000 GWh/yr of hydropower. Cumulatively, dams risk interrupting the basin's sediment dynamics with severe impacts on livelihoods and eco-systems. To evaluate cumulative impacts and benefits of the ad-hoc planned status-quo portfolio, we combine the CASCADE sediment connectivity model with data on hydropower production and sediment trapping at each dam site. We couple CASCADE to a multi-objective genetic algorithm (BORG) identifying a) portfolios resulting in an optimal trade-off between cumulative sediment trapping and hydropower production and b) an optimal development sequence for each portfolio. We perform this analysis first for the pristine basin (i.e., without pre-existing dams) and then starting from the status-quo portfolio, deriving policy recommendations for which dams should be prioritized in the near future. The status-quo portfolio creates a sub-optimal trade-off between hydropower and sediment trapping, exploiting 50 % of the basin's hydro-electric potential and trapping 60 % of the sediment load. Alternative optimal portfolios could have produced equivalent hydropower for 30 % sediment trapping. Imminent development of mega-dams in the lower basin will increase hydropower production by 20 % but increase sediment trapping to >90 %. In contrast, following an optimal development sequence can still increase hydropower by 30 % with limited additional sediment trapping by prioritizing dams in upper parts of the basin. Our findings argue for reconsidering some imminent dam developments in the Mekong. With nearly 3000 dams awaiting development world-wide, results from the Mekong are of global importance, demonstrating that strategic planning and sequencing of dams is instrumental for sustainable development of dams and hydropower.

Basin-scale impacts of hydropower development on the Mompós Depression wetlands, Colombia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angarita, Héctor; Wickel, Albertus J.; Sieber, Jack; Chavarro, John; Maldonado-Ocampo, Javier A.; Herrera-R., Guido A.; Delgado, Juliana; Purkey, David

2018-05-01

A number of large hydropower dams are currently under development or in an advanced stage of planning in the Magdalena River basin, Colombia, spelling uncertainty for the Mompós Depression wetlands, one of the largest wetland systems in South America at 3400 km2. Annual large-scale inundation of floodplains and their associated wetlands regulates water, nutrient, and sediment cycles, which in turn sustain a wealth of ecological processes and ecosystem services, including critical food supplies. In this study, we implemented an integrated approach focused on key attributes of ecologically functional floodplains: (1) hydrologic connectivity between the river and the floodplain, and between upstream and downstream sections; (2) hydrologic variability patterns and their links to local and regional processes; and (3) the spatial scale required to sustain floodplain-associated processes and benefits, like migratory fish biodiversity. The implemented framework provides an explicit quantification of the nonlinear or direct response relationship of those considerations with hydropower development. The proposed framework was used to develop a comparative analysis of the potential effects of the hydropower expansion necessary to meet projected 2050 electricity requirements. As part of this study, we developed an enhancement of the Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP) that allows resolution of the floodplains water balance at a medium scale (˜ 1000 to 10 000 km2) and evaluation of the potential impacts of upstream water management practices. In the case of the Mompós Depression wetlands, our results indicate that the potential additional impacts of new hydropower infrastructure with respect to baseline conditions can range up to one order of magnitude between scenarios that are comparable in terms of energy capacity. Fragmentation of connectivity corridors between lowland floodplains and upstream spawning habitats and reduction of sediment loads show the greatest impacts, with potential reductions of up to 97.6 and 80 %, respectively, from pre-dam conditions. In some development scenarios, the amount of water regulated and withheld by upstream infrastructure is of similar magnitude to existing fluxes involved in the episodic inundation of the floodplain during dry years and, thus, can also induce substantial changes in floodplain seasonal dynamics of average-to-dry years in some areas of the Mompós Depression.

Identifying Impacts of Hydropower Regulation on Salmonid Habitats to Guide River Restoration for Existing Schemes and Mitigate Adverse Effects of Future Developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buddendorf, B.; Geris, J.; Malcolm, I.; Wilkinson, M.; Soulsby, C.

2015-12-01

A decrease in longitudinal connectivity in riverine ecosystems resulting from the construction of transverse barriers has been identified as a major threat to biodiversity. For example, Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) have a seasonal variety of hydraulic habitat requirements for their different life stages. However, hydropower impoundments impact the spatial and temporal connectivity of natural habitat along many salmon rivers in ways that are not fully understood. Yet, these changes may affect the sustainability of habitat at local and regional scales and so ultimately the conservation of the species. Research is therefore needed both to aid the restoration and management of rivers impacted by previous hydropower development and guide new schemes to mitigate potentially adverse effects. To this end we assessed the effects of hydropower development on the flow related habitat conditions for different salmon life stages in Scottish rivers at different spatial scales. We used GIS techniques to map the changes in structural connectivity at regional scales, applying a weighting for habitat quality. Next, we used hydrological models to simulate past and present hydrologic conditions that in turn drive reach-scale hydraulic models to assess the impacts of regulation on habitat suitability in both space and time. Preliminary results indicate that: 1) impacts on connectivity depend on the location of the barrier within the river network; 2) multiple smaller barriers may have a potentially lower impact than a single larger barrier; 3) there is a relationship between habitat and connectivity where losing less but more suitable habitat potentially has a disproportionally large impact; 4) the impact of flow regulation can lead to a deterioration of habitat quality, though the effects are spatially variable and the extent of the impact depends on salmon life stage. This work can form a basis for using natural processes to perform targeted and cost-effective restoration of rivers.

Hydropower's Biogenic Carbon Footprint.

PubMed

Scherer, Laura; Pfister, Stephan

2016-01-01

Global warming is accelerating and the world urgently needs a shift to clean and renewable energy. Hydropower is currently the largest renewable source of electricity, but its contribution to climate change mitigation is not yet fully understood. Hydroelectric reservoirs are a source of biogenic greenhouse gases and in individual cases can reach the same emission rates as thermal power plants. Little is known about the severity of their emissions at the global scale. Here we show that the carbon footprint of hydropower is far higher than previously assumed, with a global average of 173 kg CO2 and 2.95 kg CH4 emitted per MWh of electricity produced. This results in a combined average carbon footprint of 273 kg CO2e/MWh when using the global warming potential over a time horizon of 100 years (GWP100). Nonetheless, this is still below that of fossil energy sources without the use of carbon capture and sequestration technologies. We identified the dams most promising for capturing methane for use as alternative energy source. The spread among the ~1500 hydropower plants analysed in this study is large and highlights the importance of case-by-case examinations.

Using Conventional Hydropower to Help Alleviate Variable Resource Grid Integration Challenges in the Western U.S

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veselka, T. D.; Poch, L.

2011-12-01

Integrating high penetration levels of wind and solar energy resources into the power grid is a formidable challenge in virtually all interconnected systems due to the fact that supply and demand must remain in balance at all times. Since large scale electricity storage is currently not economically viable, generation must exactly match electricity demand plus energy losses in the system as time unfolds. Therefore, as generation from variable resources such as wind and solar fluctuate, production from generating resources that are easier to control and dispatch need to compensate for these fluctuations while at the same time respond to both instantaneous change in load and follow daily load profiles. The grid in the Western U.S. is not exempt to grid integration challenges associated with variable resources. However, one advantage that the power system in the Western U.S. has over many other regional power systems is that its footprint contains an abundance of hydropower resources. Hydropower plants, especially those that have reservoir water storage, can physically change electricity production levels very quickly both via a dispatcher and through automatic generation control. Since hydropower response time is typically much faster than other dispatchable resources such as steam or gas turbines, it is well suited to alleviate variable resource grid integration issues. However, despite an abundance of hydropower resources and the current low penetration of variable resources in the Western U.S., problems have already surfaced. This spring in the Pacific Northwest, wetter than normal hydropower conditions in combination with transmission constraints resulted in controversial wind resource shedding. This action was taken since water spilling would have increased dissolved oxygen levels downstream of dams thereby significantly degrading fish habitats. The extent to which hydropower resources will be able to contribute toward a stable and reliable Western grid is currently being studied. Typically these studies consider the inherent flexibility of hydropower technologies, but tend to fall short on details regarding grid operations, institutional arrangements, and hydropower environmental regulations. This presentation will focus on an analysis that Argonne National Laboratory is conducting in collaboration with the Western Area Power Administration (Western). The analysis evaluates the extent to which Western's hydropower resources may help with grid integration challenges via a proposed Energy Imbalance Market. This market encompasses most of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council footprint. It changes grid operations such that the real-time dispatch would be, in part, based on a 5-minute electricity market. The analysis includes many factors such as site-specific environmental considerations at each of its hydropower facilities, long-term firm purchase agreements, and hydropower operating objectives and goals. Results of the analysis indicate that site-specific details significantly affect the ability of hydropower plant to respond to grid needs in a future which will have a high penetration of variable resources.

78 FR 20176 - Credit for Renewable Electricity Production, Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-04-03

... electricity from closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy, small irrigation..., geothermal energy, solar energy, small irrigation power, municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower... from the qualified energy resources of wind, closed-loop biomass, geothermal energy, and solar energy...

How run-of-river operation affects hydropower generation and value.

PubMed

Jager, Henriette I; Bevelhimer, Mark S

2007-12-01

Regulated rivers in the United States are required to support human water uses while preserving aquatic ecosystems. However, the effectiveness of hydropower license requirements nationwide has not been demonstrated. One requirement that has become more common is "run-of-river" (ROR) operation, which restores a natural flow regime. It is widely believed that ROR requirements (1) are mandated to protect aquatic biota, (2) decrease hydropower generation per unit flow, and (3) decrease energy revenue. We tested these three assumptions by reviewing hydropower projects with license-mandated changes from peaking to ROR operation. We found that ROR operation was often prescribed in states with strong water-quality certification requirements and migratory fish species. Although benefits to aquatic resources were frequently cited, changes were often motivated by other considerations. After controlling for climate, the overall change in annual generation efficiency across projects because of the change in operation was not significant. However, significant decreases were detected at one quarter of individual hydropower projects. As expected, we observed a decrease in flow during peak demand at 7 of 10 projects. At the remaining projects, diurnal fluctuations actually increased because of operation of upstream storage projects. The economic implications of these results, including both producer costs and ecologic benefits, are discussed. We conclude that regional-scale studies of hydropower regulation, such as this one, are long overdue. Public dissemination of flow data, license provisions, and monitoring data by way of on-line access would facilitate regional policy analysis while increasing regulatory transparency and providing feedback to decision makers.

Summary Report of Advanced Hydropower Innovations and Cost Reduction Workshop at Arlington, VA, November 5 & 6, 2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O'Connor, Patrick; Rugani, Kelsey; West, Anna

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technology Office (WWPTO), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), hosted a day and half long workshop on November 5 and 6, 2015 in the Washington, D.C. metro area to discuss cost reduction opportunities in the development of hydropower projects. The workshop had a further targeted focus on the costs of small, low-head1 facilities at both non-powered dams (NPDs) and along undeveloped stream reaches (also known as New Stream-Reach Development or “NSD”). Workshop participants included a cross-section of seasoned experts, including project owners and developers, engineering and construction experts,more » conventional and next-generation equipment manufacturers, and others to identify the most promising ways to reduce costs and achieve improvements for hydropower projects.« less

Impact of Climatic Variability on Hydropower Reservoirs in the Paraiba Basin, Southeast of Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barros, A.; simoes, s

2002-05-01

During 2000/2001, a severe drought greatly reduced the volume of water available to Brazilian hydropower plants and lead to a national water rationing plan. To undestand the potential for climatic change in hydrological regimes and its impact on hydropower we chose the Paraiba Basin located in Southeast Brazil. Three important regional multi-purpose reservoirs are operating in this basin. Moreover, the Paraiba River is of great economic and environmental importance and also constitutes a major corridor connecting the two cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We analyzed monthly and daily records for rainfall, streamflow and temperature using regression and variance analysis. Rainfall records do not show any significant trend since the 1930s/1940s. By contrast, analysis of seasonal patterns show that in the last twenty years rainfall has increased during autumn and winter (dry season) and decreased during spring and summer (rainy season). Comparison between rainfall and streaflow, from small catchment without man-made influences, shows a more pronounced deficit in streamflow when compared with rainfall. The shifts in seasonal rainfall could indicate a tendency towards a more uniform rainfall pattern and could serve to reduce the streamflow. However, the largest upward trends in temperature were found in the driest months (JJA). The increase in rainfall would not be sufficient to overcome increased of evaporation expect to the same period. Instead, such increase in evaporation could create an over more pronounced streamflow deficit. Climatic variability could be reducing water availability in these reservoirs especially in the driest months. To reduce the uncertainties in hydrological predictions, planners need to incorporate climatic variability, at the catchment scale, in order to accomodate the new conditions resulting from these changes.

Balancing power production and instream flow regime for small scale hydropower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perona, P.; Gorla, L.; Characklis, G. W.

2013-12-01

Flow diversion from river and torrent main stems is a common practice to feed water uses such run-of-river and mini-hydropower, irrigation, etc. Considering the worldwide increasing water demand, it becomes mandatory to take the importance of riparian ecosystems and related biodiversity into account before starting such practices. In this paper, we use a simple hydro-economic model (Perona et al., 2013, Gorla and Perona, 2013) to show that redistribution policies at diversion nodes allow for a clear bio-economic interpretation of residual flows. This model uses the Principle of Equal Marginal Utility (PEMU) as optimal water allocation rule for generating natural-like flow releases while maximizing the aggregated economic benefits of both the riparian environment and the traditional use (e.g., hydropower). We show that both static and dynamic release polices such Minimal Flow, and Proportional/Non-proportional Repartitions, respectively, can all be represented in terms of PEMU, making explicit the value of the ecosystem health underlying each policy. The related ecological and economical performances are evaluated by means of hydrological/ecological indicators. We recommend taking this method into account as a helpful tool guiding political, economical and ecological decisions when replacing the inadequate concept of Minimum Flow Requirement (MFR) with dynamic ones. References Perona, P., D. Dürrenmatt and G. Characklis (2013) Obtaining natural-like flow releases in diverted river reaches from simple riparian benefit economic models. Journal of Environmental Management, 118: 161-169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.01.010 Gorla, L. and P. Perona (2013) On quantifying ecologically sustainable flow releases in a diverted river reach. Journal of Hydrology, 489: 98- 107, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.02.043

Effects of the uncertainty of energy price and water availability forecasts on the operation of Alpine hydropower reservoir systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anghileri, D.; Castelletti, A.; Burlando, P.

2016-12-01

European energy markets have experienced dramatic changes in the last years because of the massive introduction of Variable Renewable Sources (VRSs), such as wind and solar power sources, in the generation portfolios in many countries. VRSs i) are intermittent, i.e., their production is highly variable and only partially predictable, ii) are characterized by no correlation between production and demand, iii) have negligible costs of production, and iv) have been largely subsidized. These features result in lower energy prices, but, at the same time, in increased price volatility, and in network stability issues, which pose a threat to traditional power sources because of smaller incomes and higher maintenance costs associated to a more flexible operation of power systems. Storage hydropower systems play an important role in compensating production peaks, both in term of excess and shortage of energy. Traditionally, most of the research effort in hydropower reservoir operation has focused on modeling and forecasting reservoir inflow as well as designing reservoir operation accordingly. Nowadays, price variability may be the largest source of uncertainty in the context of hydropower systems, especially when considering medium-to-large reservoirs, whose storage can easily buffer small inflow fluctuations. In this work, we compare the effects of uncertain inflow and energy price forecasts on hydropower production and profitability. By adding noise to historic inflow and price trajectories, we build a set of synthetic forecasts corresponding to different levels of predictability and assess their impact on reservoir operating policies and performances. The study is conducted on different hydropower systems, including storage systems and pumped-storage systems, with different characteristics, e.g., different inflow-capacity ratios. The analysis focuses on Alpine hydropower systems where the hydrological regime ranges from purely ice and snow-melt dominated to mixed snow-melt and rain-dominated regimes.

Exploring the hydropower potential of future ice-free glacier basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Round, Vanessa; Farinotti, Daniel; Huss, Matthias

2017-04-01

The retreat of glaciers over the next century will present new challenges related to water availability and cause significant changes to the landscape. The construction of dams in areas becoming ice-free has previously been suggested as a mitigation measure against changes to water resources in the European Alps. In Switzerland, a number of hydropower dams already exist directly below glaciers, and the hydropower potential of natural lakes left by retreating glaciers has been recognised. We expand these concepts to the regional, and ultimately global, scale to assess the potential of creating hydropower dams in glacier basins, encouraged by advantages such as relatively low ecological and social impacts, and the possibility to replicate the water storage capabilities of glaciers. In a first order assessment, dam volumes are computed using a subglacial topography model and dam walls simulated at the terminus of each glacier. Potential power production is then estimated from projected glacier catchment runoff until 2100 based on the Global Glacier Evolution Model (GloGEM), and penstock head approximated from a global digital elevation model. Based on this, a feasibility ranking system is presented which takes into account various proxies for cost, demand and impact, such as proximity to populations and existing infrastructure, geological risks and threatened species. The ultimate objective is to identify locations of glacier retreat which could most feasibly and beneficially be used for hydropower production.

Hydro-power production and fish habitat suitability: Assessing impact and effectiveness of ecological flows at regional scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceola, Serena; Pugliese, Alessio; Ventura, Matteo; Galeati, Giorgio; Montanari, Alberto; Castellarin, Attilio

2018-06-01

Anthropogenic activities along streams and rivers may be of major concern for fluvial ecosystems, e.g. abstraction and impoundment of surface water resources may profoundly alter natural streamflow regimes. An established approach aimed at preserving the behavior and distribution of fluvial species relies on the definition of ecological flows (e-flows) downstream of dams and diversion structures. E-flow prescriptions are usually set by basin authorities at regional scale, often without a proper assessment of their impact and effectiveness. On the contrary, we argue that e-flows should be identified on the basis of (i) regional and (ii) quantitative assessments. We focus on central Italy and evaluate the effects on habitat suitability of two near-threatened fish species (i.e. Barbel and Chub) and an existing hydro-power network when shifting from the current time-invariant e-flow policy to a tighter and seasonally-varying soon-to-be-enforced one. Our example clearly shows that: (a) quantitative regional scale assessments are viable even when streamflow observations are entirely missing at study sites; (b) aprioristic e-flows policies may impose releases that exceed natural streamflows for significantly long time intervals (weeks, or months); (c) unduly tightening e-flow policies may heavily impact regional hydro-power productivity (15% and 42% losses on annual and seasonal basis, respectively), yet resulting in either marginal or negligible improvements of fluvial ecosystem.

Assessment of potential for small hydro/solar power integration in a mountainous, data sparse region: the role of hydrological prediction accuracy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borga, Marco; Francois, Baptiste; Creutin, Jean-Dominique; Hingray, Benoit; Zoccatelli, Davide; Tardivo, Gianmarco

2015-04-01

In many parts of the world, integration of small hydropower and solar/wind energy sources along river systems is examined as a way to meet pressing renewable energy targets. Depending on the space and time scales considered, hydrometeorological variability may synchronize or desynchronize solar/wind, runoff and the demand opening the possibility to use their complementarity to smooth the intermittency of each individual energy source. Rivers also provide important ecosystem services, including the provision of high quality downstream water supply and the maintenance of in-stream habitats. With future supply and demand of water resources both impacted by environmental change, a good understanding of the potential for the integration among hydropower and solar/wind energy sources in often sparsely gauged catchments is important. In such cases, where complex data-demanding models may be inappropriate, there is a need for simple conceptual modelling approaches that can still capture the main features of runoff generation and artificial regulation processes. In this work we focus on run-of-the-river and solar-power interaction assessment. In order to catch the three key cycles of the load fluctuation - daily, weekly and seasonal, the time step used in the study is the hourly resolution. We examine the performance of a conceptual hydrological model which includes facilities to model dam regulation and diversions and hydrological modules to account for the effect of glaciarised catchments. The model is applied to catchments of the heavily regulated Upper Adige river system (6900 km2), Eastern Italian Alps, which has a long history of hydropower generation. The model is used to characterize and predict the natural flow regime, assess the regulation impacts, and simulate co-fluctuations between run-of- the-river and solar power. The results demonstrates that the simple, conceptual modelling approach developed here can capture the main hydrological and regulation processes well at the three key cycles of the load fluctuations. A specific focus is dedicated on how the results can be communicated to stakeholders in order to provide a basis for discussing the development of new adaptive management strategies.

Operation of hydropower generation systems in the Alps under future climate and socio-economic drivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anghileri, Daniela; Castelletti, Andrea; Burlando, Paolo

2015-04-01

Alpine hydropower systems are an important source of renewable energy for many countries in Europe. In Switzerland, for instance, they represent the most important domestic source of renewable energy (around 55%). However, future hydropower production may be threatened by unprecedented challenges, such as a decreasing water availability, due to climate change (CC) and associated glacier retreat, and uncertain operating conditions, such as future power needs and highly fluctuating demand on the energy market. This second aspect has gained increasingly relevance since the massive introduction of solar and wind generating systems in the portfolios of many European countries. Because hydropower systems have the potential to provide backup storage of energy to compensate for fluctuations that are typical, for instance, of solar and wind generation systems, it is important to investigate how the increased demand for flexible operation, together with climate change challenge and fluctuating markets, can impact their operating policies. The Swiss Competence Center on Supply of Electricity (www.sccer-soe.ch) has been recently established to explore new potential paths for the development of future power generation systems. In this context, we develop modelling and optimization tools to design and assess new operation strategies for hydropower systems to increase their reliability, flexibility, and robustness to future operation conditions. In particular, we develop an advanced modelling framework for the integrated simulation of the operation of hydropower plants, which accounts for CC-altered streamflow regimes, new demand and market conditions, as well as new boundary conditions for operation (e.g., aquatic ecosystem conservation). The model construction consists of two primary components: a physically based and spatially distributed hydrological model, which describes the relevant hydrological processes at the basin scale, and an agent based decision model, which describes the behavior of hydropower operators. This integrated model allows to quantitatively explore possible trajectories of future evolution of the hydropower systems under the combined effect of climate and socio-economic drivers. In a multi-objective perspective, the model can test how different hydropower operation strategies perform in terms of power production, reliability and flexibility of supply, profitability of operation, and ecosystem conservation. This contribution presents the methodological framework designed to formulate the integrated model, its expected outcomes, and some preliminary results on a pilot study.

The Economic Benefits Of Multipurpose Reservoirs In The United States- Federal Hydropower Fleet

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadjerioua, Boualem; Witt, Adam M.; Stewart, Kevin M.

The United States is home to over 80,000 dams, of which approximately 3% are equipped with hydroelectric generating capabilities. When a dam serves as a hydropower facility, it provides a variety of energy services that range from clean, reliable power generation to load balancing that supports grid stability. In most cases, the benefits of dams and their associated reservoirs go far beyond supporting the nation s energy demand. As evidenced by the substantial presence of non-powered dams with the ability to store water in large capacities, the primary purpose of a dam may not be hydropower, but rather one ofmore » many other purposes. A dam and reservoir may support navigation, recreation, flood control, irrigation, and water supply, with each multipurpose benefit providing significant social and economic impacts on a local, regional, and national level. When hydropower is one of the services provided by a multipurpose reservoir, it is then part of an integrated system of competing uses. Operating rules, management practices, consumer demands, and environmental constraints must all be balanced to meet the multipurpose project s objectives. When federal dams are built, they are authorized by Congress to serve one or more functions. Legislation such as the Water Resources Development Act regulates the operation of the facility in order to coordinate the authorized uses and ensure the dam s intended objectives are being met. While multipurpose reservoirs account for billions of dollars in contributions to National Economic Development (NED) every year, no attempt has been made to evaluate their benefits on a national scale. This study is an on-going work conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in an effort to estimate the economic benefits of multipurpose hydropower reservoirs in the United States. Given the important role that federal hydropower plays in the U.S., the first focus of this research will target the three main federal hydropower owners Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Together these three agencies own and operate 157 powered dams which account for almost half of the total installed hydropower capacity in the U.S. Future work will include engaging publicly-owned utilities and the private sector in order to quantify the benefits of all multipurpose hydropower reservoirs in the U.S.« less

Examining the economic impacts of hydropower dams on property values using GIS.

PubMed

Bohlen, Curtis; Lewis, Lynne Y

2009-07-01

While the era of dam building is largely over in the United States, globally dams are still being proposed and constructed. The articles in this special issue consider many aspects and impacts of dams around the world. This paper examines dam removal and the measurement of the impacts of dams on local community property values. Valuable lessons may be found. In the United States, hundreds of small hydropower dams will come up for relicensing in the coming decade. Whether or not the licenses are renewed and what happens to the dams if the licenses expires is a subject of great debate. Dams are beginning to be removed for river restoration and fisheries restoration and these "end-of-life" decisions may offer lessons for countries proposing or currently building small (and large) hydropower dams. What can these restoration stories tell us? In this paper, we examine the effects of dams along the Penobscot River in Maine (USA) on residential property values. We compare the results to findings from a similar (but ex post dam removal) data set for properties along the Kennebec river in Maine, where the Edwards Dam was removed in 1999. The Penobscot River Restoration Project, an ambitious basin-wide restoration effort, includes plans to remove two dams and decommission a third along the Penobscot River. Dam removal has significant effects on the local environment, and it is reasonable to anticipate that environmental changes will themselves be reflected in changes in property values. Here we examine historical real estate transaction data to examine whether landowners pay a premium or penalty to live near the Penobscot River or near a hydropower generating dam. We find that waterfront landowners on the Penobscot or other water bodies in our study area pay approximately a 16% premium for the privilege of living on the water. Nevertheless, landowners pay LESS to live near the Penobscot River than they do to live further away, contrary to the expectation that bodies of water function as real estate amenities and boost local property values. Results with respect to the effect of proximity to hydropower generating plants are equivocal. Homeowners pay a small premium for houses close to hydropower dams in our region, but the statistical significance of that result depends on the specific model form used to estimate the effect. Consideration of the social and economic impacts of dam removal-based river restoration can complement studies of the ecological impacts of the practice. Such studies help us understand the extent to which human society's subjective perception of value of aquatic ecosystems relates to objective measures of ecosystem health. The paper also illustrates how geographic information systems (GIS) can help inform these analyses.

Water turbine technology for small power stations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salovaara, T.

1980-02-01

The paper examines hydro-power stations and the efficiency and costs of using water turbines to run them. Attention is given to different turbine types emphasizing the use of Kaplan-turbines and runners. Hydraulic characteristics and mechanical properties of low head turbines and small turbines, constructed of fully fabricated steel plate structures, are presented.

Big concerns with small projects: Evaluating the socio-ecological impacts of small hydropower projects in India.

PubMed

Jumani, Suman; Rao, Shishir; Machado, Siddarth; Prakash, Anup

2017-05-01

Although Small Hydropower Projects (SHPs) are encouraged as sources of clean and green energy, there is a paucity of research examining their socio-ecological impacts. We assessed the perceived socio-ecological impacts of 4 SHPs within the Western Ghats in India by conducting semi-structured interviews with local respondents. Primary interview data were sequentially validated with secondary data, and respondent perceptions were subsequently compared against the expected baseline of assured impacts. We evaluated the level of awareness about SHPs, their perceived socio-economic impacts, influence on resource access and impacts on human-elephant interactions. The general level of awareness about SHPs was low, and assurances of local electricity and employment generation remained largely unfulfilled. Additionally most respondents faced numerous unanticipated adverse impacts. We found a strong relationship between SHP construction and increasing levels of human-elephant conflict. Based on the disparity between assured and actual social impacts, we suggest that policies regarding SHPs be suitably revised.

Geotechnical Characteristics and Stability Analysis of Rock-Soil Aggregate Slope at the Gushui Hydropower Station, Southwest China

PubMed Central

Shi, Chong; Xu, Fu-gang

2013-01-01

Two important features of the high slopes at Gushui Hydropower Station are layered accumulations (rock-soil aggregate) and multilevel toppling failures of plate rock masses; the Gendakan slope is selected for case study in this paper. Geological processes of the layered accumulation of rock and soil particles are carried out by the movement of water flow; the main reasons for the toppling failure of plate rock masses are the increasing weight of the upper rock-soil aggregate and mountain erosion by river water. Indoor triaxial compression test results show that, the cohesion and friction angle of the rock-soil aggregate decreased with the increasing water content; the cohesion and the friction angle for natural rock-soil aggregate are 57.7 kPa and 31.3° and 26.1 kPa and 29.1° for saturated rock-soil aggregate, respectively. The deformation and failure mechanism of the rock-soil aggregate slope is a progressive process, and local landslides will occur step by step. Three-dimensional limit equilibrium analysis results show that the minimum safety factor of Gendakan slope is 0.953 when the rock-soil aggregate is saturated, and small scale of landslide will happen at the lower slope. PMID:24082854

Geotechnical characteristics and stability analysis of rock-soil aggregate slope at the Gushui Hydropower Station, southwest China.

PubMed

Zhou, Jia-wen; Shi, Chong; Xu, Fu-gang

2013-01-01

Two important features of the high slopes at Gushui Hydropower Station are layered accumulations (rock-soil aggregate) and multilevel toppling failures of plate rock masses; the Gendakan slope is selected for case study in this paper. Geological processes of the layered accumulation of rock and soil particles are carried out by the movement of water flow; the main reasons for the toppling failure of plate rock masses are the increasing weight of the upper rock-soil aggregate and mountain erosion by river water. Indoor triaxial compression test results show that, the cohesion and friction angle of the rock-soil aggregate decreased with the increasing water content; the cohesion and the friction angle for natural rock-soil aggregate are 57.7 kPa and 31.3° and 26.1 kPa and 29.1° for saturated rock-soil aggregate, respectively. The deformation and failure mechanism of the rock-soil aggregate slope is a progressive process, and local landslides will occur step by step. Three-dimensional limit equilibrium analysis results show that the minimum safety factor of Gendakan slope is 0.953 when the rock-soil aggregate is saturated, and small scale of landslide will happen at the lower slope.

Regulatory approaches for addressing dissolved oxygen concerns at hydropower facilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peterson, Mark J.; Cada, Glenn F.; Sale, Michael J.

Low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations are a common water quality problem downstream of hydropower facilities. At some facilities, structural improvements (e.g. installation of weir dams or aerating turbines) or operational changes (e.g., spilling water over the dam) can be made to improve DO levels. In other cases, structural and operational approaches are too costly for the project to implement or are likely to be of limited effectiveness. Despite improvements in overall water quality below dams in recent years, many hydropower projects are unable to meet state water quality standards for DO. Regulatory agencies in the U.S. are considering or implementingmore » dramatic changes in their approach to protecting the quality of the Nation’s waters. New policies and initiatives have emphasized flexibility, increased collaboration and shared responsibility among all parties, and market-based, economic incentives. The use of new regulatory approaches may now be a viable option for addressing the DO problem at some hydropower facilities. This report summarizes some of the regulatory-related options available to hydropower projects, including negotiation of site-specific water quality criteria, use of biological monitoring, watershed-based strategies for the management of water quality, and watershed-based trading. Key decision points center on the health of the local biological communities and whether there are contributing impacts (i.e., other sources of low DO effluents) in the watershed. If the biological communities downstream of the hydropower project are healthy, negotiation for site-specific water quality standards or biocriteria (discharge performance criteria based on characteristics of the aquatic biota) might be pursued. If there are other effluent dischargers in the watershed that contribute to low DO problems, watershed-scale strategies and effluent trading may be effective. This report examines the value of regulatory approaches by reviewing their use in other« less

Small hydropower plants standardization, between myth and reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paraschivescu, A. V.; Ahmad-Rashid, K.; Popa, F.; Popa, B.

2017-01-01

Many providers for small hydropower plants equipment have tried to standardize the components and even the entire equipment. So called “compact turbines” were launched on the market, ensuring the pre-designed solution of the modular components, but usually with lower efficiency then turbines specially designed for a certain site. For civil works it is possible to standardize some components, such as the powerhouse, the surge tank or the headrace, but not the intake and the weir. Part of the hydropower plants can be standardized, but not the entire project, because there are a lot of variables that influence the design. Among these, the dimension, materials and design of the canal and the penstock are given by the hydrology, topography and the geology of the project’s area. This paper presents an attempt at standardization by using different heads and different installed flows. The case study is made on the Lukosi River from Tanzania, because there is a good hydrological database on power and energy calculation. For the powerhouse, pressure tower and intake dimensioning, the assumptions and materials considered cover all challenges that could appear in the geological and topographical structure of the project’s area (worst case, most expensive). The study has highlighted African climatologic and hydrological conditions and the adapting of current technology to these conditions.

Hydropower's Biogenic Carbon Footprint

PubMed Central

Pfister, Stephan

2016-01-01

Global warming is accelerating and the world urgently needs a shift to clean and renewable energy. Hydropower is currently the largest renewable source of electricity, but its contribution to climate change mitigation is not yet fully understood. Hydroelectric reservoirs are a source of biogenic greenhouse gases and in individual cases can reach the same emission rates as thermal power plants. Little is known about the severity of their emissions at the global scale. Here we show that the carbon footprint of hydropower is far higher than previously assumed, with a global average of 173 kg CO2 and 2.95 kg CH4 emitted per MWh of electricity produced. This results in a combined average carbon footprint of 273 kg CO2e/MWh when using the global warming potential over a time horizon of 100 years (GWP100). Nonetheless, this is still below that of fossil energy sources without the use of carbon capture and sequestration technologies. We identified the dams most promising for capturing methane for use as alternative energy source. The spread among the ~1500 hydropower plants analysed in this study is large and highlights the importance of case-by-case examinations. PMID:27626943

Digital Mapping and Environmental Characterization of National Wild and Scenic River Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManamay, Ryan A; Bosnall, Peter; Hetrick, Shelaine L

2013-09-01

Spatially accurate geospatial information is required to support decision-making regarding sustainable future hydropower development. Under a memorandum of understanding among several federal agencies, a pilot study was conducted to map a subset of National Wild and Scenic Rivers (WSRs) at a higher resolution and provide a consistent methodology for mapping WSRs across the United States and across agency jurisdictions. A subset of rivers (segments falling under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service) were mapped at a high resolution using the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The spatial extent and representation of river segments mapped at NHD scale were compared withmore » the prevailing geospatial coverage mapped at a coarser scale. Accurately digitized river segments were linked to environmental attribution datasets housed within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory s National Hydropower Asset Assessment Program database to characterize the environmental context of WSR segments. The results suggest that both the spatial scale of hydrography datasets and the adherence to written policy descriptions are critical to accurately mapping WSRs. The environmental characterization provided information to deduce generalized trends in either the uniqueness or the commonness of environmental variables associated with WSRs. Although WSRs occur in a wide range of human-modified landscapes, environmental data layers suggest that they provide habitats important to terrestrial and aquatic organisms and recreation important to humans. Ultimately, the research findings herein suggest that there is a need for accurate, consistent, mapping of the National WSRs across the agencies responsible for administering each river. Geospatial applications examining potential landscape and energy development require accurate sources of information, such as data layers that portray realistic spatial representations.« less

Hydropower Production and Fish Habitat Suitability: Impact and Effectiveness of Environmental Flow Prescriptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceola, Serena; Pugliese, Alessio; Galeati, Giorgio; Castellarin, Attilio

2017-04-01

The anthropogenic alteration of the natural flow regime of a river for hydropower production can significantly modify the processes and functions associated with fluvial ecosystems. In order to preserve the fluvial habitat downstream of dams and diversion structures, environmental flows are commonly defined. Such environmental flows are generally computed from empirical methodologies, which are seldom based on site-specific studies, and may not be representative of local ecological and hydraulic conditions. Here we present the results of a quantitative analysis on the effectiveness of two alternative environmental flow scenarios prescribed in Central Italy (time-invariant experimental and empirically-based flow release versus time-variant hydrogeomorphologically-based flow release) and their impact on hydropower production and fish habitat suitability. The latter is examined by means of several models of habitat suitability curve, which is a well-known approach capable of analysing fluvial species preferences as a function of key eco-hydraulic features, such as water depth, flow velocity and river substrate. The results show an evident loss of hydropower production moving from the time-invariant experimental flow release to the hydrogeomorphological one (nearly 20% at the annual scale). Concerning the effects in terms of fish habitat suitability, our outcomes are less obvious, since they are species- and life stage-specific. The proposed analysis, which can be easily adapted to different riparian habitats and hydrological contexts, is a useful tool to guide the derivation of optimal water resource management strategies in order to ensure both hydropower production and fluvial ecosystem protection.

Hydropower Production and Fish Habitat Suitability: Impact and Effectiveness of Environmental Flow Prescriptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castellarin, A.; Galeati, G.; Ceola, S.; Pugliese, A.; Ventura, M.; Montanari, A.

2017-12-01

The anthropogenic alteration of the natural flow regime of a river for hydropower production can significantly modify the processes and functions associated with fluvial ecosystems. In order to preserve the fluvial habitat downstream of dams and diversion structures, environmental flows are commonly defined. Such environmental flows are generally computed from empirical methodologies, which are seldom based on site-specific studies, and may not be representative of local ecological and hydraulic conditions. Here we present the results of a quantitative analysis on the effectiveness of two alternative environmental flow scenarios prescribed in Central Italy (time-invariant experimental and empirically-based flow release versus time-variant hydrogeomorphologically-based flow release) and their impact on hydropower production and fish habitat suitability. The latter is examined by means of several models of habitat suitability curve, which is a well-known approach capable of analysing fluvial species preferences as a function of key eco-hydraulic features, such as water depth, flow velocity and river substrate. The results show an evident loss of hydropower production moving from the time-invariant experimental flow release to the hydrogeomorphological one (nearly 20% at the annual scale). Concerning the effects in terms of fish habitat suitability, our outcomes are less obvious, since they are species- and life stage-specific. The proposed analysis, which can be easily adapted to different riparian habitats and hydrological contexts, is a useful tool to guide the derivation of optimal water resource management strategies in order to ensure both hydropower production and fluvial ecosystem protection.

Dependence of hydropower energy generation on forests in the Amazon Basin at local and regional scales.

PubMed

Stickler, Claudia M; Coe, Michael T; Costa, Marcos H; Nepstad, Daniel C; McGrath, David G; Dias, Livia C P; Rodrigues, Hermann O; Soares-Filho, Britaldo S

2013-06-04

Tropical rainforest regions have large hydropower generation potential that figures prominently in many nations' energy growth strategies. Feasibility studies of hydropower plants typically ignore the effect of future deforestation or assume that deforestation will have a positive effect on river discharge and energy generation resulting from declines in evapotranspiration (ET) associated with forest conversion. Forest loss can also reduce river discharge, however, by inhibiting rainfall. We used land use, hydrological, and climate models to examine the local "direct" effects (through changes in ET within the watershed) and the potential regional "indirect" effects (through changes in rainfall) of deforestation on river discharge and energy generation potential for the Belo Monte energy complex, one of the world's largest hydropower plants that is currently under construction on the Xingu River in the eastern Amazon. In the absence of indirect effects of deforestation, simulated deforestation of 20% and 40% within the Xingu River basin increased discharge by 4-8% and 10-12%, with similar increases in energy generation. When indirect effects were considered, deforestation of the Amazon region inhibited rainfall within the Xingu Basin, counterbalancing declines in ET and decreasing discharge by 6-36%. Under business-as-usual projections of forest loss for 2050 (40%), simulated power generation declined to only 25% of maximum plant output and 60% of the industry's own projections. Like other energy sources, hydropower plants present large social and environmental costs. Their reliability as energy sources, however, must take into account their dependence on forests.

PREDICTION OF TOTAL DISSOLVED GAS EXCHANGE AT HYDROPOWER DAMS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hadjerioua, Boualem; Pasha, MD Fayzul K; Stewart, Kevin M

2012-07-01

Total dissolved gas (TDG) supersaturation in waters released at hydropower dams can cause gas bubble trauma in fisheries resulting in physical injuries and eyeball protrusion that can lead to mortality. Elevated TDG pressures in hydropower releases are generally caused by the entrainment of air in spillway releases and the subsequent exchange of atmospheric gasses into solution during passage through the stilling basin. The network of dams throughout the Columbia River Basin (CRB) are managed for irrigation, hydropower production, flood control, navigation, and fish passage that frequently result in both voluntary and involuntary spillway releases. These dam operations are constrained bymore » state and federal water quality standards for TDG saturation which balance the benefits of spillway operations designed for Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed fisheries versus the degradation to water quality as defined by TDG saturation. In the 1970s, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), under the federal Clean Water Act (Section 303(d)), established a criterion not to exceed the TDG saturation level of 110% in order to protect freshwater and marine aquatic life. The states of Washington and Oregon have adopted special water quality standards for TDG saturation in the tailrace and forebays of hydropower facilities on the Columbia and Snake Rivers where spillway operations support fish passage objectives. The physical processes that affect TDG exchange at hydropower facilities have been studied throughout the CRB in site-specific studies and routine water quality monitoring programs. These data have been used to quantify the relationship between project operations, structural properties, and TDG exchange. These data have also been used to develop predictive models of TDG exchange to support real-time TDG management decisions. These empirically based predictive models have been developed for specific projects and account for both the fate of spillway and powerhouse flows in the tailrace channel and resultant exchange in route to the next downstream dam. Currently, there exists a need to summarize the general finding from operational and structural TDG abatement programs conducted throughout the CRB and for the development of a generalized prediction model that pools data collected at multiple projects with similar structural attributes. A generalized TDG exchange model can be tuned to specific projects and coupled with water regulation models to allow the formulation of optimal daily water regulation schedules subject to water quality constraints for TDG supersaturation. A generalized TDG exchange model can also be applied to other hydropower dams that affect TDG pressures in tailraces and can be used to develop alternative operational and structural measures to minimize TDG generation. It is proposed to develop a methodology for predicting TDG levels downstream of hydropower facilities with similar structural properties as a function of a set of variables that affect TDG exchange; such as tailwater depth, spill discharge and pattern, project head, and entrainment of powerhouse releases. TDG data from hydropower facilities located throughout the northwest region of the United States will be used to identify relationships between TDG exchange and relevant dependent variables. Data analysis and regression techniques will be used to develop predictive TDG exchange expressions for various structural categories.« less

The Second Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Federal Hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kao, Shih-Chieh; Ashfaq, Moetasim; Naz, Bibi S.

Hydropower is a key contributor to the US renewable energy portfolio due to its established development history and the diverse benefits it provides to the electric power system. Ensuring the sustainable operation of existing hydropower facilities is of great importance to the US renewable energy portfolio and the reliability of electricity grid. As directed by Congress in Section 9505 of the SECURE Water Act (SWA) of 2009 (Public Law 111-11), the US Department of Energy (DOE), in consultation with the federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and other federal agencies, has prepared a second quinquennial report on examining the potential effectsmore » of climate change on water available for hydropower at federal facilities and on the marketing of power from these federal facilities. This Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Technical Memorandum, referred to as the 9505 assessment, describes the technical basis for the report to Congress that was called for in the SWA. To evaluate the potential climate change effects on 132 federal hydropower plants across the entire US, a spatially consistent assessment approach is designed to enable an interregional comparison. This assessment uses a series of models and methods with different spatial resolutions to gradually downscale the global climate change signals into watershed-scale hydrologic projections to support hydropower impact assessment. A variety of historic meteorological and hydrologic observations, hydropower facility characteristics, and geospatial datasets is collected to support model development, calibration, and verification. Among most of the federal hydropower plants throughout the US, the most important climate change effect on hydrology is likely to be the trend toward earlier snowmelt and change of runoff seasonality. Under the projections of increasing winter/spring runoff and decreasing summer/fall runoff, water resource managers may need to consider different water use allocations. With the relatively large storage capacity in the most of the US federal hydropower reservoirs, the system is likely to be able to absorb part of the runoff variability and hence may continue to provide stable annual hydropower generation in the projected near-term and midterm future periods. Nevertheless, the findings are based on the assumption that there is no significant change in the future installed capacity and operation. The issues of aging infrastructures, competing water demand, and environmental requirements may reduce the system s ability to mitigate runoff variability and increase the difficulty of future operation. These issues are not quantitatively analyzed in this study. This study presents a regional assessment at each of the eighteen PMA study areas. This generalized approach allows for spatial consistency throughout all study areas, enabling policymakers to evaluate potential climate change impacts across the entire federal hydropower fleet. This effort is expected to promote better understanding of the sensitivity of federal power plants to water availability and provides a basis for planning future actions that will enable adaptation to climate variability and change.« less

Multimode resource-constrained multiple project scheduling problem under fuzzy random environment and its application to a large scale hydropower construction project.

PubMed

Xu, Jiuping; Feng, Cuiying

2014-01-01

This paper presents an extension of the multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem for a large scale construction project where multiple parallel projects and a fuzzy random environment are considered. By taking into account the most typical goals in project management, a cost/weighted makespan/quality trade-off optimization model is constructed. To deal with the uncertainties, a hybrid crisp approach is used to transform the fuzzy random parameters into fuzzy variables that are subsequently defuzzified using an expected value operator with an optimistic-pessimistic index. Then a combinatorial-priority-based hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model, where the combinatorial particle swarm optimization and priority-based particle swarm optimization are designed to assign modes to activities and to schedule activities, respectively. Finally, the results and analysis of a practical example at a large scale hydropower construction project are presented to demonstrate the practicality and efficiency of the proposed model and optimization method.

Multimode Resource-Constrained Multiple Project Scheduling Problem under Fuzzy Random Environment and Its Application to a Large Scale Hydropower Construction Project

PubMed Central

Xu, Jiuping

2014-01-01

This paper presents an extension of the multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem for a large scale construction project where multiple parallel projects and a fuzzy random environment are considered. By taking into account the most typical goals in project management, a cost/weighted makespan/quality trade-off optimization model is constructed. To deal with the uncertainties, a hybrid crisp approach is used to transform the fuzzy random parameters into fuzzy variables that are subsequently defuzzified using an expected value operator with an optimistic-pessimistic index. Then a combinatorial-priority-based hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model, where the combinatorial particle swarm optimization and priority-based particle swarm optimization are designed to assign modes to activities and to schedule activities, respectively. Finally, the results and analysis of a practical example at a large scale hydropower construction project are presented to demonstrate the practicality and efficiency of the proposed model and optimization method. PMID:24550708

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

News stories about conventional hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic technologies from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Wind and Water Power Program, and other federal agencies.

Determining the effects of dams on subdaily variation in river flows at a whole-basin scale

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zimmerman, J.K.H.; Letcher, B.H.; Nislow, K.H.; Lutz, K.A.; Magilligan, F.J.

2010-01-01

River regulation can alter the frequency and magnitude of subdaily flow variations causing major impacts on ecological structure and function. We developed an approach to quantify subdaily flow variation for multiple sites across a large watershed to assess the potential impacts of different dam operations (flood control, run-of-river hydropower and peaking hydropower) on natural communities. We used hourly flow data over a 9-year period from 30 stream gages throughout the Connecticut River basin to calculate four metrics of subdaily flow variation and to compare sites downstream of dams with unregulated sites. Our objectives were to (1) determine the temporal scale of data needed to characterize subdaily variability; (2) compare the frequency of days with high subdaily flow variation downstream of dams and unregulated sites; (3) analyse the magnitude of subdaily variation at all sites and (4) identify individual sites that had subdaily variation significantly higher than unregulated locations. We found that estimates of flow variability based on daily mean flow data were not sufficient to characterize subdaily flow patterns. Alteration of subdaily flows was evident in the number of days natural ranges of variability were exceeded, rather than in the magnitude of subdaily variation, suggesting that all rivers may exhibit highly variable subdaily flows, but altered rivers exhibit this variability more frequently. Peaking hydropower facilities had the most highly altered subdaily flows; however, we observed significantly altered ranges of subdaily variability downstream of some flood-control and run-of-river hydropower dams. Our analysis can be used to identify situations where dam operating procedures could be modified to reduce the level of hydrologic alteration. ?? 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Estimating Sediment Delivery to The Rio Maranon, Peru Prior to Large-Scale Hydropower Developments Using High Resolution Imagery from Google Earth and a DJI Phantom 3 Drone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goode, J. R.; Candelaria, T.; Kramer, N. R.; Hill, A. F.

2016-12-01

As global energy demands increase, generating hydroelectric power by constructing dams and reservoirs on large river systems is increasingly seen as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, especially in emerging economies. Many large-scale hydropower projects are located in steep mountainous terrain, where environmental factors have the potential to conspire against the sustainability and success of such projects. As reservoir storage capacity decreases when sediment builds up behind dams, high sediment yields can limit project life expectancy and overall hydropower viability. In addition, episodically delivered sediment from landslides can make quantifying sediment loads difficult. These factors, combined with remote access, limit the critical data needed to effectively evaluate development decisions. In the summer of 2015, we conducted a basic survey to characterize the geomorphology, hydrology and ecology of 620 km of the Rio Maranon, Peru - a major tributary to the Amazon River, which flows north from the semi-arid Peruvian Andes - prior to its dissection by several large hydropower dams. Here we present one component of this larger study: a first order analysis of potential sediment inputs to the Rio Maranon, Peru. To evaluate sediment delivery and storage in this system, we used high resolution Google Earth imagery to delineate landslides, combined with high resolution imagery from a DJI Phantom 3 Drone, flown at alluvial fan inputs to the river in the field. Because hillslope-derived sediment inputs from headwater tributaries are important to overall ecosystem health in large river systems, our study has the potential to contribute to the understanding the impacts of large Andean dams on sediment connectivity to the Amazon basin.

The Mekong's future flows under multiple driving factors: How future climate change, hydropower developments and irrigation expansion drive hydrological changes?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoang, L. P.; van Vliet, M. T. H.; Lauri, H.; Kummu, M.; Koponen, J.; Supit, I.; Leemans, R.; Kabat, P.; Ludwig, F.

2016-12-01

The Mekong River's flows and water resources are in many ways essential for sustaining economic growths, flood security of about 70 million people and biodiversity in one of the world's most ecologically productive wetland systems. The river's hydrological cycle, however, are increasingly perturbed by climate change, large-scale hydropower developments and rapid irrigated land expansions. This study presents an integrated impact assessment to characterize and quantify future hydrological changes induced by these driving factors, both separately and combined. We have integrated a crop simulation module and a hydropower dam module into a distributed hydrological model (VMod) and simulated the Mekong's hydrology under multiple climate change and development scenarios. Our results show that the Mekong's hydrological regime will experience substantial changes caused by the considered factors. Magnitude-wise, hydropower dam developments exhibit the largest impacts on river flows, with projected higher flows (up to +35%) during the dry season and lower flows (up to -44%) during the wet season. Annual flow changes caused by the dams, however, are relatively marginal. In contrast to this, climate change is projected to increase the Mekong's annual flows (up to +16%) while irrigated land expansions result in annual flow reductions (-1% to -3%). Combining the impacts of these three drivers, we found that river flow changes, especially those at the monthly scale, largely differ from changes under the individual driving factors. This is explained by large differences in impacts' magnitudes and contrasting impacts' directions for the individual drivers. We argue that the Mekong's future flows are likely driven by multiple factors and thus advocate for integrated assessment approaches and tools that support proper considerations of these factors and their interplays.

Short-term Hydropower Reservoir Operations in Chile's Central Interconnected System: Tradeoffs between Hydrologic Alteration and Economic Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olivares, M. A.

2011-12-01

Hydropower accounts for about 50% of the installed capacity in Chile's Central Interconnected System (CIS) and new developments are envisioned in the near future. Large projects involving reservoirs are perceived negatively by the general public. In terms of operations, hydropower scheduling takes place at monthly, weekly, daily and hourly intervals, and operations at each level affect different environmental processes. Due to its ability to quickly and inexpensively respond to short-term changes in demand, hydropower reservoirs often are operated to provide power during periods of peak demand. This operational scheme, known as hydropeaking, changes the hydrologic regime by altering the rate and frequency of changes in flow magnitude on short time scales. To mitigate impacts on downstream ecosystems, operational constraints -typically minimum instream flows and maximum ramping rates- are imposed on hydropower plants. These operational restrictions limit reduce operational flexibility and can reduce the economic value of energy generation by imposing additional costs on the operation of interconnected power systems. Methods to predict the degree of hydrologic alteration rely on statistical analyses of instream flow time series. Typically, studies on hydrologic alteration use historical operational records for comparison between pre- and post-dam conditions. Efforts to assess hydrologic alteration based on future operational schemes of reservoirs are scarce. This study couples two existing models: a mid-term operations planning and a short-term economic dispatch to simulate short-term hydropower reservoir operations under different future scenarios. Scenarios of possible future configurations of the Chilean CIS are defined with emphasis on the introduction of non-conventional renewables (particularly wind energy) and large hydropower projects in Patagonia. Both models try to reproduce the actual decision making process in the Chilean Central Interconnected System (CIS). Chile's CIS is structured as a mandatory pool with audited costs and therefore the economic dispatch can be formulated as a cost minimization problem. Consequently, hydropower reservoir operations are controlled by the ISO. Reservoirs with the most potential to cause short-term hydrologic alteration were identified from existing operational records. These records have also been used to validate our simulated operations. Results in terms of daily and subdaily hydrologic alteration as well as the economic performance of the CIS are presented for alternative energy matrix scenarios. Tradeoff curves representing the compromise between indicators of hydrologic alteration and economic indicators of the CIS operation are developed.

Philippines Country Analysis Brief

EIA Publications

2014-01-01

The Philippines is a net energy importer in spite of low consumption levels relative to its Southeast Asian neighbors. The country produces small volumes of oil, natural gas, and coal. Geothermal, hydropower, and other renewable sources constitute a significant share of electricity generation.

Dams on Mekong tributaries as significant contributors of hydrological alterations to the Tonle Sap Floodplain in Cambodia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias, M. E.; Piman, T.; Lauri, H.; Cochrane, T. A.; Kummu, M.

2014-12-01

River tributaries have a key role in the biophysical functioning of the Mekong Basin. Of particular interest are the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong (3S) rivers, which contribute nearly a quarter of the total Mekong discharge. Forty two dams are proposed in the 3S, and once completed they will exceed the active storage of China's large dam cascade in the Upper Mekong. Given their proximity to the Lower Mekong floodplains, the 3S dams could alter the flood-pulse hydrology driving the productivity of downstream ecosystems. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to quantify how hydropower development in the 3S, together with definite future (DF) plans for infrastructure development through the basin, would alter the hydrology of the Tonle Sap's Floodplain, the largest wetland in the Mekong and home to one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. We coupled results from four numerical models representing the basin's surface hydrology, water resources development, and floodplain hydrodynamics. The scale of alterations caused by hydropower in the 3S was compared with the basin's DF scenario driven by the Upper Mekong dam cascade. The DF or the 3S development scenarios could independently increase Tonle Sap's 30-day minimum water levels by 30 ± 5 cm and decrease annual water level fall rates by 0.30 ± 0.05 cm day-1. When analyzed together (DF + 3S), these scenarios are likely to eliminate all baseline conditions (1986-2000) of extreme low water levels, a particularly important component of Tonle Sap's environmental flows. Given the ongoing trends and large economic incentives in the hydropower business in the region, there is a high possibility that most of the 3S hydropower potential will be exploited and that dams will be built even in locations where there is a high risk of ecological disruption. Hence, retrofitting current designs and operations to promote sustainable hydropower practices that optimize multiple river services - rather than just maximize hydropower generation - appear to be the most feasible alternative to mitigate hydropower-related disruptions in the Mekong.

Dams on Mekong tributaries as significant contributors of hydrological alterations to the Tonle Sap Floodplain in Cambodia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias, M. E.; Piman, T.; Lauri, H.; Cochrane, T. A.; Kummu, M.

2014-02-01

River tributaries have a key role in the biophysical functioning of the Mekong Basin. Of particular attention are the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong (3S) rivers, which contribute nearly a quarter of the total Mekong discharge. Forty two dams are proposed in the 3S, and once completed they will exceed the active storage of China's large dam cascade in the upper Mekong. Given their proximity to the lower Mekong floodplains, the 3S dams could alter the flood-pulse hydrology driving the productivity of downstream ecosystems. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to quantify how hydropower development in the 3S would alter the hydrology of the Tonle Sap floodplain, the largest wetland in the Mekong and home to one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. We coupled results from four numerical models representing the basin's surface hydrology, water resources development, and floodplain hydrodynamics. The scale of alterations caused by hydropower in the 3S was compared with the basin's definite future development scenario (DF) driven by the upper Mekong dam cascade. The DF or the 3S development scenarios could independently increase Tonle Sap's 30 day minimum water levels by 30 ± 5 cm and decrease annual water level fall rates by 0.30 ± 0.05 cm d-2. When analyzed together (DF + 3S), these scenarios are likely to eliminate all baseline conditions (1986-2000) of extreme low water levels, a particularly important component of Tonle Sap's environmental flows. Given the ongoing trends and large economic incentives in the hydropower business in the region, there is a high possibility that most of the 3S hydropower potential will actually be exploited and that dams would be built even in locations where there is a high risk of ecological disruptions. Hence, retrofitting current designs and operations to promote sustainable hydropower practices that optimize multiple river services - rather than just maximize hydropower generation - appear to be the most feasible alternative to mitigate hydropower-related disruptions in the Mekong.

Projected impacts of climate change on hydropower potential in China

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Xingcai; Tang, Qiuhong; Voisin, Nathalie

Hydropower is an important renewable energy source in China, but it is sensitive to climate change, because the changing climate may alter hydrological conditions (e.g., river flow and reservoir storage). Future changes and associated uncertainties in China's gross hydropower potential (GHP) and developed hydropower potential (DHP) are projected using simulations from eight global hydrological models (GHMs), including a large-scale reservoir regulation model, forced by five general circulation models (GCMs) with climate data under two representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). Results show that the estimation of the present GHP of China is comparable to other studies; overall, the annual GHP is projectedmore » to change by −1.7 to 2 % in the near future (2020–2050) and increase by 3 to 6 % in the late 21st century (2070–2099). The annual DHP is projected to change by −2.2 to −5.4 % (0.7–1.7 % of the total installed hydropower capacity (IHC)) and −1.3 to −4 % (0.4–1.3 % of total IHC) for 2020–2050 and 2070–2099, respectively. Regional variations emerge: GHP will increase in northern China but decrease in southern China – mostly in south central China and eastern China – where numerous reservoirs and large IHCs currently are located. The area with the highest GHP in southwest China will have more GHP, while DHP will reduce in the regions with high IHC (e.g., Sichuan and Hubei) in the future. The largest decrease in DHP (in %) will occur in autumn or winter, when streamflow is relatively low and water use is competitive. Large ranges in hydropower estimates across GHMs and GCMs highlight the necessity of using multimodel assessments under climate change conditions. This study prompts the consideration of climate change in planning for hydropower development and operations in China, to be further combined with a socioeconomic analysis for strategic expansion.« less

Living Rivers: Importance of Andes-Amazon Connectivity and Consequences of Hydropower Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, E.

2016-12-01

The inherent dynamism of rivers along elevational and longitudinal gradients underpins freshwater biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services in the Andean-Amazon. While this region covers only a small part of the entire Amazon Basin, its influences on downstream ecology, biogeochemistry, and human wellbeing are disproportionate with its relative small size. Seasonal flow pulses from Andean rivers maintain habitat, signal migratory fishes, and export sediment, nutrients, and organic matter to distant ecosystems—like lowland Amazonia and the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Rivers are key transportation routes, and freshwater fisheries are a primary protein source for the >30 million people that inhabit the Amazon Basin. Numerous cultural traditions depend on free-flowing Andean rivers; examples include Kukama beliefs in the underwater cities of the Marañon River, where people who have drowned in rivers whose bodies are not recovered go to live, or the pre-dawn bathing rituals of the Peruvian Shawi, who gain energy and connect with ancestors in cold, fast-flowing Andean waters. Transformations in the Andean-Amazon landscape—in particular from dams—threaten to compromise flows critical for human and ecosystem wellbeing. Presently, at least 250 hydropower dams are in operation, under construction, or proposed for Andean-Amazon rivers. This presentation will discuss regional trends in hydropower development, quantify effects of existing and proposed dams on Andean-Amazon connectivity, and examine the social and cultural importance of free-flowing Andean-Amazon rivers.

Evaluating and optimizing the operation of the hydropower system in the Upper Yellow River: A general LINGO-based integrated framework.

PubMed

Si, Yuan; Li, Xiang; Yin, Dongqin; Liu, Ronghua; Wei, Jiahua; Huang, Yuefei; Li, Tiejian; Liu, Jiahong; Gu, Shenglong; Wang, Guangqian

2018-01-01

The hydropower system in the Upper Yellow River (UYR), one of the largest hydropower bases in China, plays a vital role in the energy structure of the Qinghai Power Grid. Due to management difficulties, there is still considerable room for improvement in the joint operation of this system. This paper presents a general LINGO-based integrated framework to study the operation of the UYR hydropower system. The framework is easy to use for operators with little experience in mathematical modeling, takes full advantage of LINGO's capabilities (such as its solving capacity and multi-threading ability), and packs its three layers (the user layer, the coordination layer, and the base layer) together into an integrated solution that is robust and efficient and represents an effective tool for data/scenario management and analysis. The framework is general and can be easily transferred to other hydropower systems with minimal effort, and it can be extended as the base layer is enriched. The multi-objective model that represents the trade-off between power quantity (i.e., maximum energy production) and power reliability (i.e., firm output) of hydropower operation has been formulated. With equivalent transformations, the optimization problem can be solved by the nonlinear programming (NLP) solvers embedded in the LINGO software, such as the General Solver, the Multi-start Solver, and the Global Solver. Both simulation and optimization are performed to verify the model's accuracy and to evaluate the operation of the UYR hydropower system. A total of 13 hydropower plants currently in operation are involved, including two pivotal storage reservoirs on the Yellow River, which are the Longyangxia Reservoir and the Liujiaxia Reservoir. Historical hydrological data from multiple years (2000-2010) are provided as input to the model for analysis. The results are as follows. 1) Assuming that the reservoirs are all in operation (in fact, some reservoirs were not operational or did not collect all of the relevant data during the study period), the energy production is estimated as 267.7, 357.5, and 358.3×108 KWh for the Qinghai Power Grid during dry, normal, and wet years, respectively. 2) Assuming that the hydropower system is operated jointly, the firm output can reach 3110 MW (reliability of 100%) and 3510 MW (reliability of 90%). Moreover, a decrease in energy production from the Longyangxia Reservoir can bring about a very large increase in firm output from the hydropower system. 3) The maximum energy production can reach 297.7, 363.9, and 411.4×108 KWh during dry, normal, and wet years, respectively. The trade-off curve between maximum energy production and firm output is also provided for reference.

Evaluating and optimizing the operation of the hydropower system in the Upper Yellow River: A general LINGO-based integrated framework

PubMed Central

Si, Yuan; Liu, Ronghua; Wei, Jiahua; Huang, Yuefei; Li, Tiejian; Liu, Jiahong; Gu, Shenglong; Wang, Guangqian

2018-01-01

The hydropower system in the Upper Yellow River (UYR), one of the largest hydropower bases in China, plays a vital role in the energy structure of the Qinghai Power Grid. Due to management difficulties, there is still considerable room for improvement in the joint operation of this system. This paper presents a general LINGO-based integrated framework to study the operation of the UYR hydropower system. The framework is easy to use for operators with little experience in mathematical modeling, takes full advantage of LINGO’s capabilities (such as its solving capacity and multi-threading ability), and packs its three layers (the user layer, the coordination layer, and the base layer) together into an integrated solution that is robust and efficient and represents an effective tool for data/scenario management and analysis. The framework is general and can be easily transferred to other hydropower systems with minimal effort, and it can be extended as the base layer is enriched. The multi-objective model that represents the trade-off between power quantity (i.e., maximum energy production) and power reliability (i.e., firm output) of hydropower operation has been formulated. With equivalent transformations, the optimization problem can be solved by the nonlinear programming (NLP) solvers embedded in the LINGO software, such as the General Solver, the Multi-start Solver, and the Global Solver. Both simulation and optimization are performed to verify the model’s accuracy and to evaluate the operation of the UYR hydropower system. A total of 13 hydropower plants currently in operation are involved, including two pivotal storage reservoirs on the Yellow River, which are the Longyangxia Reservoir and the Liujiaxia Reservoir. Historical hydrological data from multiple years (2000–2010) are provided as input to the model for analysis. The results are as follows. 1) Assuming that the reservoirs are all in operation (in fact, some reservoirs were not operational or did not collect all of the relevant data during the study period), the energy production is estimated as 267.7, 357.5, and 358.3×108 KWh for the Qinghai Power Grid during dry, normal, and wet years, respectively. 2) Assuming that the hydropower system is operated jointly, the firm output can reach 3110 MW (reliability of 100%) and 3510 MW (reliability of 90%). Moreover, a decrease in energy production from the Longyangxia Reservoir can bring about a very large increase in firm output from the hydropower system. 3) The maximum energy production can reach 297.7, 363.9, and 411.4×108 KWh during dry, normal, and wet years, respectively. The trade-off curve between maximum energy production and firm output is also provided for reference. PMID:29370206

Dependence of hydropower energy generation on forests in the Amazon Basin at local and regional scales

PubMed Central

Stickler, Claudia M.; Coe, Michael T.; Costa, Marcos H.; Nepstad, Daniel C.; McGrath, David G.; Dias, Livia C. P.; Rodrigues, Hermann O.; Soares-Filho, Britaldo S.

2013-01-01

Tropical rainforest regions have large hydropower generation potential that figures prominently in many nations’ energy growth strategies. Feasibility studies of hydropower plants typically ignore the effect of future deforestation or assume that deforestation will have a positive effect on river discharge and energy generation resulting from declines in evapotranspiration (ET) associated with forest conversion. Forest loss can also reduce river discharge, however, by inhibiting rainfall. We used land use, hydrological, and climate models to examine the local “direct” effects (through changes in ET within the watershed) and the potential regional “indirect” effects (through changes in rainfall) of deforestation on river discharge and energy generation potential for the Belo Monte energy complex, one of the world’s largest hydropower plants that is currently under construction on the Xingu River in the eastern Amazon. In the absence of indirect effects of deforestation, simulated deforestation of 20% and 40% within the Xingu River basin increased discharge by 4–8% and 10–12%, with similar increases in energy generation. When indirect effects were considered, deforestation of the Amazon region inhibited rainfall within the Xingu Basin, counterbalancing declines in ET and decreasing discharge by 6–36%. Under business-as-usual projections of forest loss for 2050 (40%), simulated power generation declined to only 25% of maximum plant output and 60% of the industry’s own projections. Like other energy sources, hydropower plants present large social and environmental costs. Their reliability as energy sources, however, must take into account their dependence on forests. PMID:23671098

Wind for Schools Affiliate Programs: Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2009-12-01

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Wind for Schools program is designed to raise awareness about the benefits of wind energy while simultaneously developing a wind energy knowledge base in future leaders of our communities, states, and nation. To accommodate the many stakeholders who are interested in the program, a Wind for Schools affiliate program has been implemented. This document describes the affiliate program and how interested schools may participate.

Hydropower impacts on reservoir fish populations are modified by environmental variation.

PubMed

Eloranta, Antti P; Finstad, Anders G; Helland, Ingeborg P; Ugedal, Ola; Power, Michael

2018-03-15

Global transition towards renewable energy production has increased the demand for new and more flexible hydropower operations. Before management and stakeholders can make informed choices on potential mitigations, it is essential to understand how the hydropower reservoir ecosystems respond to water level regulation (WLR) impacts that are likely modified by the reservoirs' abiotic and biotic characteristics. Yet, most reservoir studies have been case-specific, which hampers large-scale planning, evaluation and mitigation actions across various reservoir ecosystems. Here, we investigated how the effect of the magnitude, frequency and duration of WLR on fish populations varies along environmental gradients. We used biomass, density, size, condition and maturation of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) in Norwegian hydropower reservoirs as a measure of ecosystem response, and tested for interacting effects of WLR and lake morphometry, climatic conditions and fish community structure. Our results showed that environmental drivers modified the responses of brown trout populations to different WLR patterns. Specifically, brown trout biomass and density increased with WLR magnitude particularly in large and complex-shaped reservoirs, but the positive relationships were only evident in reservoirs with no other fish species. Moreover, increasing WLR frequency was associated with increased brown trout density but decreased condition of individuals within the populations. WLR duration had no significant impacts on brown trout, and the mean weight and maturation length of brown trout showed no significant response to any WLR metrics. Our study demonstrates that local environmental characteristics and the biotic community strongly modify the hydropower-induced WLR impacts on reservoir fishes and ecosystems, and that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to mitigate environmental impacts. This knowledge is vital for sustainable planning, management and mitigation of hydropower operations that need to meet the increasing worldwide demand for both renewable energy and ecosystem services delivered by freshwaters. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Blade number impact on pressure and performance of archimedes screw turbine using CFD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maulana, Muhammad Ilham; Syuhada, Ahmad; Nawawi, Muhammad

2018-02-01

Many rivers in Indonesia can be used as source of mini/micro hydro power plant using low head turbine. The most suitable type of turbine used in fluid flow with low head is the Archimedes screw turbine. The Archimedes screw hydro turbine is a relative newcomer to the small-scale hydropower that can work efficiently on heads as low as 10 meter. In this study, the performance of Archimedes water turbines that has different blade numbers that are thoroughly evaluated to obtain proper blade configuration. For this purpose, numerical simulations are used to predict the pressure changes that occur along the turbine. The simulation results show that turbines with an amount of two blades have more sloping pressure distribution so that it has better stability.

Effective management of combined renewable energy resources in Tajikistan.

PubMed

Karimov, Khasan S; Akhmedov, Khakim M; Abid, Muhammad; Petrov, Georgiy N

2013-09-01

Water is needed mostly in summer time for irrigation and in winter time for generation of electric power. This results in conflicts between downstream countries that utilize water mostly for irrigation and those upstream countries, which use water for generation of electric power. At present Uzbekistan is blocking railway connection that is going to Tajikistan to interfere to transportation of the equipment and materials for construction of Rogun hydropower plant. In order to avoid conflicts between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan a number of measures for the utilization of water resources of the trans-boundary Rivers Amu-Darya and Sir-Darya are discussed. In addition, utilization of water with the supplement of wind and solar energy projects for proper and efficient management of water resources in Central Asia; export-import exchanges of electric energy in summer and winter time between neighboring countries; development of small hydropower project, modern irrigation system in main water consuming countries and large water reservoir hydropower projects for control of water resources for hydropower and irrigation are also discussed. It is also concluded that an effective management of water resources can be achieved by signing Water treaty between upstream and downstream countries, first of all between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In this paper management of water as renewable energy resource in Tajikistan and Central Asian Republics are presented. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Interactions Between Land Use, Climate and Hydropower in Scotland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sample, J.

2014-12-01

To promote the transition towards a low carbon economy, the Scottish Government has adopted ambitious energy targets, including generating all electricity from renewable sources by 2020. To achieve this, continued investment will be required across a range of sustainable technologies. Hydropower has a long history in Scotland and the present-day operational capacity of ~1.5 GW makes a substantial contribution to the national energy budget. In addition, there remains potential for ~500 MW of further development, mostly in the form of small to medium size run-of-river schemes. Climate change is expected to lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle, leading to changes in both the magnitude and seasonality of river flows. There may also be indirect effects, such as changing land use, enhanced evapotranspiration rates and an increased demand for irrigation, all of which could affect the water available for energy generation. Preliminary assessments of hydropower commonly use flow duration curves (FDCs) to estimate the power generation potential at proposed new sites. In this study, we use spatially distributed modelling to generate daily and monthly FDCs for a range of Scottish catchments using a variety of future land use and climate change scenarios. These are then used to assess Scotland's future hydropower potential under different flow regimes. The results are spatially variable and include large uncertainties, but some consistent patterns emerge. Many locations are predicted to experience enhanced seasonality, with lower power generation potential in the summer months and greater potential during the autumn and winter. Some sites may require infrastructural changes in order to continue operating at optimum efficiency. We discuss the implications and limitations of our results, and highlight design and adaptation options for maximising the resilience of hydropower installations under changing future flow patterns.

Improving the global efficiency in small hydropower practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razurel, P.; Gorla, L.; Crouzy, B.; Perona, P.

2015-12-01

The global increase in energy production from renewable sources has seen river exploitation for small hydropower plants to also grow considerably in the last decade. River intakes used to divert water from the main course to the power plant are at the base of such practice. A key issue concern with finding innovative concepts to both design and manage such structures in order to improve classic operational rules. Among these, the Minimal Flow Release (MFR) concept has long been used in spite of its environmental inconsistency.In this work, we show that the economical and ecological efficiency of diverting water for energy production in small hydropower plants can be improved towards sustainability by engineering a novel class of flow-redistribution policies. We use the mathematical form of the Fermi-Dirac statistical distribution to define non-proportional dynamic flow-redistribution rules, which broadens the spectrum of dynamic flow releases based on proportional redistribution. The theoretical background as well as the economic interpretation is presented and applied to three case studies in order to systematically test the global performance of such policies. Out of numerical simulations, a Pareto frontier emerges in the economic vs environmental efficiency plot, which show that non-proportional distribution policies improve both efficiencies with respect to those obtained from some traditional MFR and proportional policies. This picture is shown also for long term climatic scenarios affecting water availability and the natural flow regime.In a time of intense and increasing exploitation close to resource saturation, preserving natural river reaches requires to abandon inappropriate static release policies in favor of non-proportional ones towards a sustainable use of the water resource.

SLH Timing Belt Powertrain

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, Abe

2014-04-09

The main goal of this proposal was to develop and test a novel powertrain solution for the SLH hydroEngine, a low-cost, efficient low-head hydropower technology. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. renewable electricity is produced by hydropower (EIA 2010). According to the U.S. Department of Energy; this amount could be increased by 50% with small hydropower plants, often using already-existing dams (Hall 2004). There are more than 80,000 existing dams, and of these, less than 4% generate power (Blankinship 2009). In addition, there are over 800 irrigation districts in the U.S., many with multiple, non-power, low-head drops. These existing, non-power dams andmore » irrigation drops could be retrofitted to produce distributed, baseload, renewable energy with appropriate technology. The problem is that most existing dams are low-head, or less than 30 feet in height (Ragon 2009). Only about 2% of the available low-head hydropower resource in the U.S. has been developed, leaving more than 70 GW of annual mean potential low-head capacity untapped (Hall 2004). Natel Energy, Inc. is developing a low-head hydropower turbine that operates efficiently at heads less than 6 meters and is cost-effective for deployment across multiple low-head structures. Because of the unique racetrack-like path taken by the prime-movers in the SLH, a flexible powertrain is required. Historically, the only viable technological solution was roller chain. Despite the having the ability to easily attach blades, roller chain is characterized by significant drawbacks, including high cost, wear, and vibration from chordal action. Advanced carbon- fiber-reinforced timing belts have been recently developed which, coupled with a novel belt attachment system developed by Natel Energy, result in a large reduction in moving parts, reduced mass and cost, and elimination of chordal action for increased fatigue life. The work done in this project affirmatively addressed each of the following 3 major uncertainties concerning a timing-belt based hydroEngine powertrain: 1. Can a belt handle the high torques and power loads demanded by the SLH? (Yes.) 2. Can the SLH blades be mounted to belt with a connection that can withstand the loads encountered in operation? (Yes.) 3. Can the belt, with blade attachments, live through the required cyclic loading? (Yes.) The research adds to the general understanding of sustainable small hydropower systems by using innovative system testing to develop and demonstrate performance of a novel powertrain solution, enabling a new type of hydroelectric turbine to be commercially developed. The technical effectiveness of the methods investigated has been shown to be positive through an extensive design and testing process accommodating many constraints and goals, with a major emphasis on high cycle fatigue life. Economic feasibility of the innovations has been demonstrated through many iterations of design for manufacturability and cost reduction. The project is of benefit to the public because it has helped to develop a solution to a major problem -- despite the large available potential for new low-head hydropower, high capital costs and high levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) continue to be major barriers to project development. The hydroEngine represents a significant innovation, leveraging novel fluid mechanics and mechanical configuration to allow lower-cost turbine manufacture and development of low head hydropower resources.« less

75 FR 65620 - Inglis Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Ready for Environmental Analysis and Soliciting...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-26

... Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Ready for Environmental Analysis and Soliciting Comments...: Inglis Hydropower, LLC. e. Name of Project: Inglis Hydropower Project. f. Location: The project would be... ready for environmental analysis at this time. l. The proposed 2.0-megawatt Inglis Hydropower Project...

Ergonomics program management in Tucuruí Hydropower Plant using TPM methodology.

PubMed

Santos, R M; Sassi, A C; Sá, B M; Miguez, S A; Pardauil, A A

2012-01-01

This paper aims to present the benefits achieved in the ergonomics process management with the use of the TPM methodology (Total Productive Maintenance) in Tucuruí Hydropower Plant. The methodology is aligned with the corporate guidelines, moreover with the Strategic Planning of the company, it is represented in the TPM Pillars including the Health Pillar in which is inserted the ergonomics process. The results of the ergonomic actions demonstrated a 12% reduction over the absenteeism rate due to musculoskeletal disorders, solving 77,0% of ergonomic non-conformities, what favored the rise of the Organizational Climate in 44,8%, impacting on the overall performance of the company. Awards confirmed the success of the work by the achievement of the Award for TPM Excellence in 2001, Award for Excellence in Consistent TPM Commitment in 2009 and more recently the Special Award for TPM Achievement, 2010. The determination of the high rank administration and workers, allied with the involvement/dynamism of Pillars, has assured the success of this management practice in Tucuruí Hydropower Plant.

Application procedures for hydropower licenses, exemptions, and preliminary permits

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1982-04-01

This document provides essential information regarding the FERC's regulations and procedures for filing an application with the Commission for hydropower licenses, exemptions and preliminary permits. Each section is page numbered with a roman numeral followed by consecutive arabic numbering. The appendices are page numbered with an alphabetical prefix and consecutve page numbering within each section. The first section of this book contains background descriptions of the Commission's authority and regulations and serves as an introduction to the Commission's hydropower licensing program. Two general tables follow this introductory text and provide a quick reference to the types of applications and themore » relationship between the Commission's orders and regulations. Following the introduction are sections which include the Commission's regulations by application type: preliminary permits; licenses; and exemptions. Each section contains an introduction describing application procedures by type of action requested. There are two appendices provided contain information on the consultation process and lists of agencies to be consulted and a section by section analyses of the Commission's orders.« less

Advanced inflow forecasting for a hydropower plant in an Alpine hydropower regulated catchment - coupling of operational and hydrological forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tilg, Anna-Maria; Schöber, Johannes; Huttenlau, Matthias; Messner, Jakob; Achleitner, Stefan

2017-04-01

Hydropower is a renewable energy source which can help to stabilize fluctuations in the volatile energy market. Especially pumped-storage infrastructures in the European Alps play an important role within the European energy grid system. Today, the runoff of rivers in the Alps is often influenced by cascades of hydropower infrastructures where the operational procedures are triggered by energy market demands, water deliveries and flood control aspects rather than by hydro-meteorological variables. An example for such a highly hydropower regulated river is the catchment of the river Inn in the Eastern European Alps, originating in the Engadin (Switzerland). A new hydropower plant is going to be built as transboundary project at the boarder of Switzerland and Austria using the water of the Inn River. For the operation, a runoff forecast to the plant is required. The challenge in this case is that a high proportion of runoff is turbine water from an upstream situated hydropower cascade. The newly developed physically based hydrological forecasting system is mainly capable to cover natural hydrological runoff processes caused by storms and snow melt but can model only a small degree of human impact. These discontinuous parts of the runoff downstream of the pumped storage are described by means of an additional statistical model which has been developed. The main goal of the statistical model is to forecast the turbine water up to five days in advance. The lead time of the data driven model exceeds the lead time of the used energy production forecast. Additionally, the amount of turbine water is linked to the need of electricity production and the electricity price. It has been shown that especially the parameters day-ahead prognosis of the energy production and turbine inflow of the previous week are good predictors and are therefore used as input parameters for the model. As the data is restricted due to technical conditions, so-called Tobit models have been used to develop a linear regression for the runoff forecast. Although the day-ahead prognosis cannot always be kept, the regression model delivers, especially during office hours, very reasonable results. In the remaining hours the error between measurement and the forecast increases. Overall, the inflow forecast can be substantially improved by the implementation of the developed regression in the hydrological modelling system.

Water Power Technologies FY 2017 Budget At-A-Glance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2016-03-01

The Water Power Program is committed to developing and deploying a portfolio of innovative technologies and market solutions for clean, domestic power generation from water resources across the U.S. (hydropower, marine and hydrokinetics).

Climate change impact on operation of dams and hydroelectricity generation in the Northeastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ehsani, N.; Vorosmarty, C. J.; Fekete, B. M.

2016-12-01

We are using a large-scale, high-resolution, fully integrated hydrological/reservoir/hydroelectricity model to investigate the impact of climate change on the operation of 11037 dams and generation of electricity from 375 hydroelectric power plants in the Northeastern United States. Moreover, we estimate the hydropower potential of the region by energizing the existing non-powered dams and then studying the impact of climate change on the hydropower potential. We show that climate change increases the impact of dams on the hydrology of the region. Warmer temperatures produce shorter frozen periods, earlier snowmelt and elevated evapotranspiration rates, which when combined with changes in precipitation, are projected to increase water availability in winter but reduce it during summer. As a result, the water that is stored by dams will be more than ever a necessary part of the routine water systems operations to compensate for these seasonal imbalances. The function of dams as emergency water storage for creating drought resiliency will mostly diminish in the future. Building more dams to cope with the local impacts of climate change on water resources and to offset the increased drought vulnerability may thus be inevitable. Annual hydroelectricity generation in the region is 41 Twh. Our estimate of the annual hydropower potential of non-powered dams adds up to 350 Twh. Climate change may reduce hydropower potential from non-powered dams by up to 13% and reduce current hydroelectricity generation by up to 8% annually. Hydroelectricity generation and hydropower potential may increase in winter months and decline in months of summer and fall. These changes call for recalibration of dam operations and may raise conflict of interests in multipurpose dams.

Stream Classification Tool User Manual: For Use in Applications in Hydropower-Related Evironmental Mitigation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManamay, Ryan A.; Troia, Matthew J.; DeRolph, Christopher R.

Stream classifications are an inventory of different types of streams. Classifications help us explore similarities and differences among different types of streams, make inferences regarding stream ecosystem behavior, and communicate the complexities of ecosystems. We developed a nested, layered, and spatially contiguous stream classification to characterize the biophysical settings of stream reaches within the Eastern United States (~ 900,000 reaches). The classification is composed of five natural characteristics (hydrology, temperature, size, confinement, and substrate) along with several disturbance regime layers, and each was selected because of their relevance to hydropower mitigation. We developed the classification at the stream reach levelmore » using the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 1 (1:100k scale). The stream classification is useful to environmental mitigation for hydropower dams in multiple ways. First, it creates efficiency in the regulatory process by creating an objective and data-rich means to address meaningful mitigation actions. Secondly, the SCT addresses data gaps as it quickly provides an inventory of hydrology, temperature, morphology, and ecological communities for the immediate project area, but also surrounding streams. This includes identifying potential reference streams as those that are proximate to the hydropower facility and fall within the same class. These streams can potentially be used to identify ideal environmental conditions or identify desired ecological communities. In doing so, the stream provides some context for how streams may function, respond to dam regulation, and an overview of specific mitigation needs. Herein, we describe the methodology in developing each stream classification layer and provide a tutorial to guide applications of the classification (and associated data) in regulatory settings, such as hydropower (re)licensing.« less

2014 Water Power Program Peer Review: Marine and Hydrokinetic Technologies, Compiled Presentations (Presentation)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2014-02-01

This document represents a collection of all presentations given during the EERE Wind and Water Power Program's 2014 Marine and Hydrokinetic Peer Review. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate DOE-funded hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic R&D projects for their contribution to the mission and goals of the Water Power Program and to assess progress made against stated objectives.

Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2012

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Tipton, Scott R. [R-CO-3

2011-09-06

Senate - 09/19/2012 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-624. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Dynamic versus static allocation policies in multipurpose multireservoir systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tilmant, A.; Goor, Q.; Pinte, D.; van der Zaag, P.

2007-12-01

As the competition for water is likely to increase in the near future due to socioeconomic development and population growth, water resources managers will face hard choices when allocating water between competing users. Because water is a vital resource used in multiple sectors, including the environment, the allocation is inherently a political and social process, which is likely to become increasingly scrutinized as the competition grows between the different sectors. Since markets are usually absent or ineffective, the allocation of water between competing demands is achieved administratively taking into account key objectives such as economic efficiency, equity and maintaining the ecological integrity. When crop irrigation is involved, water is usually allocated by a system of annual rights to use a fixed, static, volume of water. In a fully-allocated basin, moving from a static to a dynamic allocation process, whereby the policies are regularly updated according to the hydrologic status of the river basin, is the first step towards the development of river basin management strategies that increase the productivity of water. More specifically, in a multipurpose multireservoir system, continuously adjusting release and withdrawal decisions based on the latest hydrologic information will increase the benefits derived from the system. However, the extent to which such an adjustment can be achieved results from complex spatial and temporal interactions between the physical characteristics of the water resources system (storage, natural flows), the economic and social consequences of rationing and the impacts on natural ecosystems. The complexity of the decision-making process, which requires the continuous evaluation of numerous trade-offs, calls for the use of integrated hydrologic-economic models. This paper compares static and dynamic management approaches for a cascade of hydropower-irrigation reservoirs using stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) formulations. As its name indicates, SDDP is an extension of SDP that removes the curse of dimensionality found in discrete SDP and can therefore be used to analyze large-scale water resources systems. For the static approach, the multiobjective (irrigation-hydropower) optimization problem is solved using the constraint method, i.e. net benefits from hydropower generation are maximized and irrigation water withdrawals are additional constraints. In the dynamic approach, the SDDP model seeks to maximize the net benefits of both hydropower and irrigation crop production. A cascade of 8 reservoirs in the Turkish and Syrian parts of the Euphrates river basin is used as a case study.

Modelling the impact of large dams on flows and hydropower production of the Sekong, Sesan and Srepok Rivers in the Mekong Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piman, T.; Cochrane, T. A.; Arias, M. E.

2013-12-01

Water flow patterns in the Mekong River and its tributaries are changing due to water resources development, particularly as a result of on-going rapid hydropower development of tributaries for economic growth. Local communities and international observers are concerned that alterations of natural flow patterns will have great impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, food securing and livelihood in the basin. There is also concern that un-coordinated dam development will have an adverse impact on energy production potential of individual hydropower plants. Of immediate concern is the proposed hydropower development in the transboundary Srepok, Sesan and Srekong (3S) Basin, which contributes up to 20% of the Mekong's annual flows, has a large potential for energy production, and provides critical ecosystem services to local people and the downstream Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong delta. To assess the magnitude of potential changes in flows and hydropower production, daily flows were simulated over 20 years (1986-2005) using the SWAT and HEC ResSim models for a range of dam development and operations scenarios. Simulations of all current and proposed hydropower development in the 3S basin (41 dams) using an operation scheme to maximize electricity production will increase average dry seasonal flows by 88.1% while average wet seasonal flows decrease by 24.7% when compared to the baseline (no dams) scenario, About 55% of dry season flows changes are caused by the seven largest proposed dams (Lower Srepok 3, Lower Srepok4, Lower Sesan 3, Lower Sesan and Srepok 2, Xekong 5, Xekong 4, and Xe Xou). The total active storage of the existing and ongoing hydropower projects is only 6,616 million m3 while the cumulative active storage of the seven large proposed dams is 17,679 million m3. The Lower Srepok 3 project causes the highest impact on seasonal flow changes. Average energy production of the existing and ongoing hydropower projects is 73.2 GWh/day. Additional benefits from energy production of the seven large proposed dams (33.0 GWh/day) are less than half compared to the cumulative benefits of the exiting and ongoing projects. In total, potential energy production of all dams is 129.1 GWh/day. Cascade dam simulations, under an independent operation regime, result in high electricity production of downstream dams, particularly of small storage dams. Hourly flow alterations, however, can be significant due to intra daily reservoir operations and warrant further study as well as impact of climate change on flows and hydropower operation. Strategic site selection and coordinated reservoir operations between countries and dam operators are necessary to achieve an acceptable level of energy production in the basin and mitigate negative impacts to seasonal flow patterns which sustain downstream ecosystem productivity and livelihoods.

Open-Source as a strategy for operational software - the case of Enki

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolberg, Sjur; Bruland, Oddbjørn

2014-05-01

Since 2002, SINTEF Energy has been developing what is now known as the Enki modelling system. This development has been financed by Norway's largest hydropower producer Statkraft, motivated by a desire for distributed hydrological models in operational use. As the owner of the source code, Statkraft has recently decided on Open Source as a strategy for further development, and for migration from an R&D context to operational use. A current cooperation project is currently carried out between SINTEF Energy, 7 large Norwegian hydropower producers including Statkraft, three universities and one software company. Of course, the most immediate task is that of software maturing. A more important challenge, however, is one of gaining experience within the operational hydropower industry. A transition from lumped to distributed models is likely to also require revision of measurement program, calibration strategy, use of GIS and modern data sources like weather radar and satellite imagery. On the other hand, map based visualisations enable a richer information exchange between hydrologic forecasters and power market traders. The operating context of a distributed hydrology model within hydropower planning is far from settled. Being both a modelling framework and a library of plugin-routines to build models from, Enki supports the flexibility needed in this situation. Recent development has separated the core from the user interface, paving the way for a scripting API, cross-platform compilation, and front-end programs serving different degrees of flexibility, robustness and security. The open source strategy invites anyone to use Enki and to develop and contribute new modules. Once tested, the same modules are available for the operational versions of the program. A core challenge is to offer rigid testing procedures and mechanisms to reject routines in an operational setting, without limiting the experimentation with new modules. The Open Source strategy also has implications for building and maintaining competence around the source code and the advanced hydrological and statistical routines in Enki. Originally developed by hydrologists, the Enki code is now approaching a state where maintenance requires a background in professional software development. Without the advantage of proprietary source code, both hydrologic improvements and software maintenance depend on donations or development support on a case-to-case basis, a situation well known within the open source community. It remains to see whether these mechanisms suffice to keep Enki at the maintenance level required by the hydropower sector. ENKI is available from www.opensource-enki.org.

Designing and assessing weather-based financial hedging contracts to mitigate water conflicts at the river basin scale. A case study in the Italian Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellagamba, Laura; Denaro, Simona; Kern, Jordan; Giuliani, Matteo; Castelletti, Andrea; Characklis, Gregory

2016-04-01

Growing water demands and more frequent and severe droughts are increasingly challenging water management in many regions worldwide, exacerbating water disputes and reducing the space for negotiated agreements at the catchment scale. In the lack of a centralized controller, the design and deployment of coordination and/or regulatory mechanisms is a way to improve system-wide efficiency while preserving the distributed nature of the decision making setting, and facilitating cooperation among institutionally independent decision-makers. Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in index-based insurance contracts as mechanisms for sharing hydro-meteorological risk in complex and heterogeneous decision making context (e.g. multiple stakeholders and institutionally independent decision makers). In this study, we explore the potential for index-based insurance contracts to mitigate the conflict in a water system characterized by (political) power asymmetry between hydropower companies upstream and farmers downstream. The Lake Como basin in the Italian Alps is considered as a case study. We generated alternative regulatory mechanisms in the form of minimum release constraints to the hydropower facilities, and designed an insurance contract for hedging against hydropower relative revenue losses. The fundamental step in designing this type of insurance contracts is the identification of a suitable index, which triggers the payouts as well as the payout function, defined by strike level and slope (e.g., euros/index unit). A portfolio of index-based contracts was designed for the case study and evaluated in terms of revenue floor, basis risk and revenue fluctuation around the mean, both with and without insurance. Over the long term, the insurance proved to be capable to keep the minimum revenue above a specified level while providing a greater certainty on the revenue trend. This result shows the possibility to augment farmer's supply with little loss for hydropower companies, thus helping in mitigating the conflict between the stakeholders.

The water footprint of human-made reservoirs for hydropower, irrigation, water supply, flood prevention, fishing and recreation on a global scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hogeboom, Rick; Knook, Luuk; Hoekstra, Arjen

2017-04-01

Increasing the availability of freshwater to meet growing and competing demands is on many policy agendas. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prescribe sustainable management of water for human consumption. For centuries humans have resorted to building dams to store water in periods of excess for use in times of shortage. Although dams and their reservoirs have made important contributions to human development, it is increasingly acknowledged that reservoirs can be substantial water consumers as well. We estimated the water footprint of human-made reservoirs on a global scale and attributed it to the various reservoir purposes (hydropower generation, residential and industrial water supply, irrigation water supply, flood protection, fishing and recreation) based on their economic value. We found that economic benefits from derived products and services from 2235 reservoirs globally, amount to 311 billion US dollar annually, with residential and industrial water supply and hydropower generation as major contributors. The water footprint associated with these benefits is the sum of the water footprint of dam construction (< 1 % contribution) and evaporation from the reservoir's surface area. The latter was calculated as an ensemble mean of four different methods for estimating open water evaporation. The total water footprint of reservoirs globally adds up to ˜104 km3yr-1. Attribution per purpose shows that, with a global average water footprint of 21,5 m3GJ,-1 hydropower on average is a water intensive form of energy. We contextualized the water footprint of reservoirs and their purposes with regard to the water scarcity level of the river basin in which they occur. We found the lion's share (55%) of the water footprint is located in non-water scarce basins and only 1% in year-round scarce basins. The purpose for which the reservoir is primarily used changes with increasing water scarcity, from mainly hydropower generation in non-scarce basins, to the (more essential) purposes residential and industrial water supply, irrigation and flood control in scarcer areas. The quantitative explication of how the burden of water consumption from reservoirs is shared between its beneficiaries as proposed in this study, can contribute to reaching the desired sustainable management of finite freshwater resources as proposed by SDG 6.

Valuing year-to-go hydrologic forecast improvements for a peaking hydropower system in the Sierra Nevada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rheinheimer, David E.; Bales, Roger C.; Oroza, Carlos A.; Lund, Jay R.; Viers, Joshua H.

2016-05-01

We assessed the potential value of hydrologic forecasting improvements for a snow-dominated high-elevation hydropower system in the Sierra Nevada of California, using a hydropower optimization model. To mimic different forecasting skill levels for inflow time series, rest-of-year inflows from regression-based forecasts were blended in different proportions with representative inflows from a spatially distributed hydrologic model. The statistical approach mimics the simpler, historical forecasting approach that is still widely used. Revenue was calculated using historical electricity prices, with perfect price foresight assumed. With current infrastructure and operations, perfect hydrologic forecasts increased annual hydropower revenue by 0.14 to 1.6 million, with lower values in dry years and higher values in wet years, or about $0.8 million (1.2%) on average, representing overall willingness-to-pay for perfect information. A second sensitivity analysis found a wider range of annual revenue gain or loss using different skill levels in snow measurement in the regression-based forecast, mimicking expected declines in skill as the climate warms and historical snow measurements no longer represent current conditions. The value of perfect forecasts was insensitive to storage capacity for small and large reservoirs, relative to average inflow, and modestly sensitive to storage capacity with medium (current) reservoir storage. The value of forecasts was highly sensitive to powerhouse capacity, particularly for the range of capacities in the northern Sierra Nevada. The approach can be extended to multireservoir, multipurpose systems to help guide investments in forecasting.

Optimizing Hydropower Day-Ahead Scheduling for the Oroville-Thermalito Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veselka, T. D.; Mahalik, M.

2012-12-01

Under an award from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Water Power Program, a team of national laboratories is developing and demonstrating a suite of advanced, integrated analytical tools to assist managers and planners increase hydropower resources while enhancing the environment. As part of the project, Argonne National Laboratory is developing the Conventional Hydropower Energy and Environmental Systems (CHEERS) model to optimize day-ahead scheduling and real-time operations. We will present the application of CHEERS to the Oroville-Thermalito Project located in Northern California. CHEERS will aid California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) schedulers in making decisions about unit commitments and turbine-level operating points using a system-wide approach to increase hydropower efficiency and the value of power generation and ancillary services. The model determines schedules and operations that are constrained by physical limitations, characteristics of plant components, operational preferences, reliability, and environmental considerations. The optimization considers forebay and afterbay implications, interactions between cascaded power plants, turbine efficiency curves and rough zones, and operator preferences. CHEERS simultaneously considers over time the interactions among all CDWR power and water resources, hydropower economics, reservoir storage limitations, and a set of complex environmental constraints for the Thermalito Afterbay and Feather River habitats. Power marketers, day-ahead schedulers, and plant operators provide system configuration and detailed operational data, along with feedback on model design and performance. CHEERS is integrated with CDWR data systems to obtain historic and initial conditions of the system as the basis from which future operations are then optimized. Model results suggest alternative operational regimes that improve the value of CDWR resources to the grid while enhancing the environment and complying with water delivery obligations for non-power uses.

Estimated cumulative sediment trapping in future hydropower reservoirs in Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucía, Ana; Berlekamp, Jürgen; Zarfl, Christiane

2017-04-01

Despite a rapid economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa, almost 70% of the human population in this area remain disconnected from electricity access (International Energy Agency 2011). Mitigating climate change and a search for renewable, "climate neutral" electricity resources are additional reasons why Africa will be one key centre for future hydropower dam building, with only 8% of the technically feasible hydropower potential actually exploited. About 300 major hydropower dams with a total capacity of 140 GW are currently under construction (11.4%) or planned (88.6%) (Zarfl et al. 2015). Despite the benefits of hydropower dams, fragmentation of the rivers changes the natural flow, temperature and sediment regime. This has consequences for a high number of people that directly depend on the primary sector linked to rivers and floodplains. But sediment trapping in the reservoir also affects dam operation and decreases its life span. Thus, the objective of this work is to quantify the dimension of sediment trapping by future hydropower dams in African river basins. Soil erosion is described with the universal soil loss equation (Wischmeier & Smith 1978) and combined with the connectivity index (Cavalli et al. 2013) to estimate the amount of eroded soil that reaches the fluvial network and finally ends up in the existing (Lehner et al. 2011) and future reservoirs (Zarfl et al. 2015) per year. Different scenarios assuming parameter values from the literature are developed to include model uncertainty. Estimations for existing dams will be compared with literature data to evaluate the applied estimation method and scenario assumptions. Based on estimations for the reservoir volume of the future dams we calculated the potential time-laps of the future reservoirs due to soil erosion and depending on their planned location. This approach could support sustainable decision making for the location of future hydropower dams. References Cavalli, M., Trevisani, S., Comiti, F., & Marchi, L. (2013). Geomorphometric assessment of spatial sediment connectivity in small Alpine catchments. Geomorphology, 188, 31-41. Lehner, B., Liermann, C. R., Revenga, C., Vörösmarty, C., Fekete, B., Crouzet, P., Döll, P., Endejan, M., Frenken, K., Magome, J., Nilsson, C., Robertson, J.C., Rödel, R., Sindorf , N., & Wisser, D. (2011). High-resolution mapping of the world's reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 9(9), 494-502. Wischmeier, W. H. and D. D. Smith. (1978). Predicting rainfall erosion losses: guide to conservation planning. USDA, Agriculture Handbook 537. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Zarfl, C., Lumsdon, A. E., Berlekamp, J., Tydecks, L., & Tockner, K. (2015). A global boom in hydropower dam construction. Aquatic Sciences, 77(1), 161-170.

Small-scale monitoring - can it be integrated with large-scale programs?

Treesearch

C. M. Downes; J. Bart; B. T. Collins; B. Craig; B. Dale; E. H. Dunn; C. M. Francis; S. Woodley; P. Zorn

2005-01-01

There are dozens of programs and methodologies for monitoring and inventory of bird populations, differing in geographic scope, species focus, field methods and purpose. However, most of the emphasis has been placed on large-scale monitoring programs. People interested in assessing bird numbers and long-term trends in small geographic areas such as a local birding area...

Coupling climate and hydrological models to evaluate the impact of climate change on run of the river hydropower schemes from UK study sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pasten-Zapata, Ernesto; Jones, Julie; Moggridge, Helen

2015-04-01

As climate change is expected to generate variations on the Earth's precipitation and temperature, the water cycle will also experience changes. Consequently, water users will have to be prepared for possible changes in future water availability. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of climate change on river regimes and the implications to the operation and feasibility of run of the river hydropower schemes by analyzing four UK study sites. Run of the river schemes are selected for analysis due to their higher dependence to the available river flow volumes when compared to storage hydropower schemes that can rely on previously accumulated water volumes (linked to poster in session HS5.3). Global Climate Models (GCMs) represent the main tool to assess future climate change. In this research, Regional Climate Models (RCMs), which dynamically downscale GCM outputs providing higher resolutions, are used as starting point to evaluate climate change within the study catchments. RCM daily temperature and precipitation will be downscaled to an appropriate scale for impact studies and bias corrected using different statistical methods: linear scaling, local intensity scaling, power transformation, variance scaling and delta change correction. The downscaled variables will then be coupled to hydrological models that have been previously calibrated and validated against observed daily river flow data. The coupled hydrological and climate models will then be used to simulate historic river flows that are compared to daily observed values in order to evaluate the model accuracy. As this research will employ several different RCMs (from the EURO-CORDEX simulations), downscaling and bias correction methodologies, greenhouse emission scenarios and hydrological models, the uncertainty of each element will be estimated. According to their uncertainty magnitude, a prediction of the best downscaling approach (or approaches) is expected to be obtained. The current progress of the project will be presented along with the steps to be followed in the future.

Spatial design principles for sustainable hydropower development in river basins

DOE PAGES

Jager, Henriëtte I.; Efroymson, Rebecca A.; Opperman, Jeff J.; ...

2015-02-27

How can dams be arranged within a river basin such that they benefit society? Recent interest in this question has grown in response to the worldwide trend toward developing hydropower as a source of renewable energy in Asia and South America, and the movement toward removing unnecessary dams in the US. Environmental and energy sustainability are important practical concerns, and yet river development has rarely been planned with the goal of providing society with a portfolio of ecosystem services into the future. We organized a review and synthesis of the growing research in sustainable river basin design around four spatialmore » decisions: Is it better to build fewer mainstem dams or more tributary dams? Should dams be clustered or distributed among distant subbasins? Where should dams be placed along a river? At what spatial scale should decisions be made? We came up with the following design principles for increasing ecological sustainability: (i) concentrate dams within a subset of tributary watersheds and avoid downstream mainstems of rivers, (ii) disperse freshwater reserves among the remaining tributary catchments, (iii) ensure that habitat provided between dams will support reproduction and retain offspring, and (iv) formulate spatial decision problems at the scale of large river basins. Based on our review, we discuss trade-offs between hydropower and ecological objectives when planning river basin development. We hope that future testing and refinement of principles extracted from our review will define a path toward sustainable river basin design.« less

Adaptation of a pattern-scaling approach for assessment of local (village/valley) scale water resources and related vulnerabilities in the Upper Indus Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forsythe, Nathan; Kilsby, Chris G.; Fowler, Hayley J.; Archer, David R.

2010-05-01

The water resources of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are of the utmost importance to the economic wellbeing of Pakistan. The irrigated agriculture made possible by Indus river runoff underpins the food security for Pakistan's nearly 200 million people. Contributions from hydropower account for more than one fifth of peak installed electrical generating capacity in a country where widespread, prolonged load-shedding handicaps business activity and industrial development. Pakistan's further socio-economic development thus depends largely on optimisation of its precious water resources. Confident, accurate seasonal predictions of water resource availability coupled with sound understanding of interannual variability are urgent insights needed by development planners and infrastructure managers at all levels. This study focuses on the challenge of providing meaningful quantitative information at the village/valley scale in the upper reaches of the UIB. Proceeding by progressive reductions in scale, the typology of the observed UIB hydrological regimes -- glacial, nival and pluvial -- are examined with special emphasis on interannual variability for individual seasons. Variations in discharge (runoff) are compared to observations of climate parameters (temperature, precipitation) and available spatial data (elevation, snow cover and snow-water-equivalent). The first scale presented is composed of the large-scale, long-record gauged UIB tributary basins. The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has maintained these stations for several decades in order to monitor seasonal flows and accumulate data for design of further infrastructure. Data from basins defined by five gauging stations on the Indus, Hunza, Gilgit and Astore rivers are examined. The second scale presented is a set of smaller gauged headwater catchments with short records. These gauges were installed by WAPDA and its partners amongst the international development agencies to assess potential sites for medium-scale infrastructure projects. These catchments are placed in their context within the hydrological regime classification using the spatial data and (remote sensing) observations as well as river gauging measurements. The study assesses the degree of similarity with the larger basins of the same hydrological regime. This assessment focuses on the measured response to observed climate variable anomalies. The smallest scale considered is comprised of a number of case studies at the ungauged village/valley scale. These examples are based on the delineation of areas to which specific communities (villages) have customary (riparian) water rights. These examples were suggested by non-governmental organisations working on grassroots economic development initiatives and small-scale infrastructure projects in the region. The direct observations available for these subcatchments are limited to spatial data (elevation, snow parameters). The challenge at this level is to accurately extrapolate areal values (precipitation, temperature, runoff) from point observations at the basin scale. The study assesses both the degree of similarity in the distribution of spatial parameters to the larger gauged basins and the interannual variability (spatial heterogeneity) of remotely-sensed snow cover and snow-water-equivalent at this subcatchment scale. Based upon the characterisation of spatial and interannual variability at these three spatial scales, the challenges facing local water resource managers and infrastructure operators are enumerated. Local vulnerabilities include, but are not limited to, varying thresholds in irrigation water requirements based on crop-type, minimum base flows for micro-hydropower generation during winter (high load) months and relatively small but growing demand for domestic water usage. In conclusion the study posits potential strategies for managing interannual variability and potential emerging trends. Suggested strategies are guided by the principles of low-risk adaptation, participative decision making and local capacity building.

Understanding the Amazon Hydrology for Sustainable Hydropower Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pokhrel, Y. N.; Chaudhari, S. N.

2017-12-01

Construction of 147 new hydropower dams, many of which are large, has been proposed in the Amazon river basin, despite the continuous stacking of negative impacts from the existing ones. These dams are continued to be built in a way that disrupts river ecology, causes large-scale deforestation, and negatively affects both the food systems nearby and downstream communities. In this study, we explore the impacts of the existing and proposed hydropower dams on the hydrological fluxes across the Amazonian Basin by incorporating human impact modules in an extensively validated regional hydrological model called LEAF-Hydro-Flood (LHF). We conduct two simulations, one in offline mode, forced by observed meteorological data for the historical period of 2000-2016 and the other in a coupled mode using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model. We mainly analyze terrestrial water storage and streamflow changes during the period of dam operations with and without human impacts. It is certain that the Amazon will undergo some major hydrological changes such as decrease in streamflow downstream in the coming decades caused due to these proposed dams. This study helps us understand and represent processes in a predictable manner, and provides the ability to evaluate future scenarios with dams and other major human influences while considering climate change in the basin. It also provides important insights on how to redesign the hydropower systems to make them truly renewable in terms of energy production, hydrology and ecology.

Modeling small-scale dairy farms in central Mexico using multi-criteria programming.

PubMed

Val-Arreola, D; Kebreab, E; France, J

2006-05-01

Milk supply from Mexican dairy farms does not meet demand and small-scale farms can contribute toward closing the gap. Two multi-criteria programming techniques, goal programming and compromise programming, were used in a study of small-scale dairy farms in central Mexico. To build the goal and compromise programming models, 4 ordinary linear programming models were also developed, which had objective functions to maximize metabolizable energy for milk production, to maximize margin of income over feed costs, to maximize metabolizable protein for milk production, and to minimize purchased feedstuffs. Neither multi-criteria approach was significantly better than the other; however, by applying both models it was possible to perform a more comprehensive analysis of these small-scale dairy systems. The multi-criteria programming models affirm findings from previous work and suggest that a forage strategy based on alfalfa, ryegrass, and corn silage would meet nutrient requirements of the herd. Both models suggested that there is an economic advantage in rescheduling the calving season to the second and third calendar quarters to better synchronize higher demand for nutrients with the period of high forage availability.

Environmental Issues Related to Conventional Hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Deng, Zhiqun; Colotelo, Alison HA; Brown, Richard S.

Hydropower is the largest renewable electrical energy source in the world and has a total global capacity of approximately 1,010 GW from 150 countries. Although hydropower has many environmental advantages, hydropower dams have potential adverse ecological impacts such as fish passage, water quality, and habitat alterations.

A Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET) for Characterizing Hydraulic Conditions and Impacts of Hydro-Structures on Fish

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hou, Hongfei; Deng, Zhiqun; Martinez, Jayson

Currently, approximately 16% of the world’s electricity and over 80% of the world’s renewable electricity is generated from hydropower resources, and there is potential for development of a significant amount of new hydropower capacity. However, in practice, realizing all the potential hydropower resource is limited by various factors, including environmental effects and related mitigation requirements. That is why hydropower regulatory requirements frequently call for targets to be met regarding fish injury and mortality rates. Hydropower Biological Evaluation Toolset (HBET), an integrated suite of software tools, is designed to characterize hydraulic conditions of hydropower structures and provide quantitative estimates of fishmore » injury and mortality rates due to various physical stressors including strike, pressure, and shear. HBET enables users to design new studies, analyze data, perform statistical analyses, and evaluate biological responses. In this paper, we discuss the features of the HBET software and describe a case study that illustrates its functionalities. HBET can be used by turbine manufacturers, hydropower operators, and regulators to design and operate hydropower systems that minimize ecological impacts in a cost-effective manner.« less

Sensitivity of Regional Hydropower Generation to the Projected Changes in Future Watershed Hydrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kao, S. C.; Naz, B. S.; Gangrade, S.

2015-12-01

Hydropower is a key contributor to the renewable energy portfolio due to its established development history and the diverse benefits it provides to the electric power systems. With the projected change in the future watershed hydrology, including shift of snowmelt timing, increasing occurrence of extreme precipitation, and change in drought frequencies, there is a need to investigate how the regional hydropower generation may change correspondingly. To evaluate the sensitivity of watershed storage and hydropower generation to future climate change, a lumped Watershed Runoff-Energy Storage (WRES) model is developed to simulate the annual and seasonal hydropower generation at various hydropower areas in the United States. For each hydropower study area, the WRES model use the monthly precipitation and naturalized (unregulated) runoff as inputs to perform a runoff mass balance calculation for the total monthly runoff storage in all reservoirs and retention facilities in the watershed, and simulate the monthly regulated runoff release and hydropower generation through the system. The WRES model is developed and calibrated using the historic (1980-2009) monthly precipitation, runoff, and generation data, and then driven by a large set of dynamically- and statistically-downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 climate projections to simulate the change of watershed storage and hydropower generation under different future climate scenarios. The results among different hydropower regions, storage capacities, emission scenarios, and timescales are compared and discussed in this study.

Dynamic analysis of a pumped-storage hydropower plant with random power load

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hao; Chen, Diyi; Xu, Beibei; Patelli, Edoardo; Tolo, Silvia

2018-02-01

This paper analyzes the dynamic response of a pumped-storage hydropower plant in generating mode. Considering the elastic water column effects in the penstock, a linearized reduced order dynamic model of the pumped-storage hydropower plant is used in this paper. As the power load is always random, a set of random generator electric power output is introduced to research the dynamic behaviors of the pumped-storage hydropower plant. Then, the influences of the PI gains on the dynamic characteristics of the pumped-storage hydropower plant with the random power load are analyzed. In addition, the effects of initial power load and PI parameters on the stability of the pumped-storage hydropower plant are studied in depth. All of the above results will provide theoretical guidance for the study and analysis of the pumped-storage hydropower plant.

Small Scale Industries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rural Development Detwork Bulletin, 1977

1977-01-01

Innovative programs for the promotion of small-scale enterprise are being conducted by a variety of organizations, including universities, government agencies, international research institutes, and voluntary assistance agencies. Their activities encompass basic extension services, management of cooperatives, community action programs, and…

An operational ensemble prediction system for catchment rainfall over eastern Africa spanning multiple temporal and spatial scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riddle, E. E.; Hopson, T. M.; Gebremichael, M.; Boehnert, J.; Broman, D.; Sampson, K. M.; Rostkier-Edelstein, D.; Collins, D. C.; Harshadeep, N. R.; Burke, E.; Havens, K.

2017-12-01

While it is not yet certain how precipitation patterns will change over Africa in the future, it is clear that effectively managing the available water resources is going to be crucial in order to mitigate the effects of water shortages and floods that are likely to occur in a changing climate. One component of effective water management is the availability of state-of-the-art and easy to use rainfall forecasts across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We present a web-based system for displaying and disseminating ensemble forecast and observed precipitation data over central and eastern Africa. The system provides multi-model rainfall forecasts integrated to relevant hydrological catchments for timescales ranging from one day to three months. A zoom-in features is available to access high resolution forecasts for small-scale catchments. Time series plots and data downloads with forecasts, recent rainfall observations and climatological data are available by clicking on individual catchments. The forecasts are calibrated using a quantile regression technique and an optimal multi-model forecast is provided at each timescale. The forecast skill at the various spatial and temporal scales will discussed, as will current applications of this tool for managing water resources in Sudan and optimizing hydropower operations in Ethiopia and Tanzania.

18 CFR 141.14 - Form No. 80, Licensed Hydropower Development Recreation Report.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Form No. 80, Licensed Hydropower Development Recreation Report. 141.14 Section 141.14 Conservation of Power and Water Resources... Hydropower Development Recreation Report. The form of the report, Licensed Hydropower Development Recreation...

[Influence of cascaded exploitation of small hydropower on phytoplankton in Xiangxi River].

PubMed

Wu, Nai-cheng; Tang, Tao; Zhou, Shu-chan; Fu, Xiao-cheng; Jiang, Wan-xiang; Li, Feng-qing; Cai, Qing-hua

2007-05-01

With the five small hydropowers (SHPs) from up- to downstream of Xiangxi River as test objects, this paper studied the influence of SHPs cascaded exploitation on the phytoplankton in the river. The results showed that phytoplankton assemblages were dominated by diatoms, occupying 95.54% of the total number of species. Achnanthes linearis, A. lanceolata var. elliptica and Cocconeis placentula were the most abundant species, with the relative abundance being 23.96%, 18.62% and 12.48%, respectively. The average algal density at 25 sampling sites was 6.29 x 10(5) ind x L(-1), with the maximum of 1.81 x 10(6) ind x L(-1) and the minimum of 2.35 x 10(5) ind x L(-1). Two-way ANOVA indicated that water flow velocity was the main factor affecting the phytoplankton. The establishment of the cascaded SHPs on the river made the habitat of lower reach has a significant difference with the others, resulting in a dramatic change of many parameters including Margalef diversity index, species richness, generic richness, taxonomic composition, and the percentage of diatoms.

National Hydropower Plant Dataset, Version 1 (Update FY18Q2)

DOE Data Explorer

Samu, Nicole; Kao, Shih-Chieh; O'Connor, Patrick; Johnson, Megan; Uria-Martinez, Rocio; McManamay, Ryan

2016-09-30

The National Hydropower Plant Dataset, Version 1, Update FY18Q2, includes geospatial point-level locations and key characteristics of existing hydropower plants in the United States that are currently online. These data are a subset extracted from NHAAP’s Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) dataset, which is a cornerstone of NHAAP’s EHA effort that has supported multiple U.S. hydropower R&D research initiatives related to market acceleration, environmental impact reduction, technology-to-market activities, and climate change impact assessment.

Utility photovoltaic group: Status report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serfass, Jeffrey A.; Hester, Stephen L.; Wills, Bethany N.

1996-01-01

The Utility PhotoVoltaic Group (UPVG) was formed in October of 1992 with a mission to accelerate the use of cost-effective small-scale and emerging grid-connected applications of photovoltaics for the benefit of electric utilities and their customers. The UPVG is now implementing a program to install up to 50 megawatts of photovoltaics in small-scale and grid-connected applications. This program, called TEAM-UP, is a partnership of the U.S. electric utility industry and the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop utility PV markets. TEAM-UP is a utility-directed program to significantly increase utility PV experience by promoting installations of utility PV systems. Two primary program areas are proposed for TEAM-UP: (1) Small-Scale Applications (SSA)—an initiative to aggregate utility purchases of small-scale, grid-independent applications; and (2) Grid-Connected Applications (GCA)—an initiative to identify and competitively award cost-sharing contracts for grid-connected PV systems with high market growth potential, or collective purchase programs involving multiple buyers. This paper describes these programs and outlines the schedule, the procurement status, and the results of the TEAM-UP process.

Methane Ebullition in Temperate Hydropower Reservoirs and Implications for US Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miller, Benjamin L.; Arntzen, Evan V.; Goldman, Amy E.

The United States is home to more than 87,000 dams, 2,198 of which are actively used for hydropower production. With the December 2015 consensus adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Paris Agreement, it is imperative for the U.S. to accurately quantify greenhouse gas fluxes from its hydropower reservoirs. Methane ebullition, or methane bubbles originating from river or lake sediments, can account for nearly all of a reservoir’s methane emissions to the atmosphere. However, methane ebullition in hydropower reservoirs has been studied in only three temperate locations, none of which are in the United States. This studymore » measures high ebullitive methane fluxes from two hydropower reservoirs in eastern Washington, synthesizes the known information about methane ebullition from tropical, boreal, and temperate hydropower reservoirs, and investigates the implications for U.S. hydropower management and growth.« less

75 FR 7469 - Panel Member List for Hydropower Licensing Study Dispute Resolution; Notice Extending Filing Date...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-19

... List for Hydropower Licensing Study Dispute Resolution; Notice Extending Filing Date for Applications for Panel Member List for Hydropower Licensing Study Dispute Resolution February 4, 2010. On October... on a list of resource experts willing to serve as a third panel member in the Commission's hydropower...

75 FR 51258 - Boott Hydropower, Inc.; Eldred L Field Hydroelectric Facility Trust; Notice of Application for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-19

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 2790-055] Boott Hydropower... Hydropower, Inc. and Eldred L Field Hydroelectric Facility Trust. e. Name of Project: Lowell Hydroelectric... Affairs Coordinator, Boott Hydropower, Inc., One Tech Drive, Suite 220, Andover, MA 01810. Tel: (978) 681...

77 FR 42714 - Eagle Creek Hydropower, LLC, Eagle Creek Land Resources, LLC, Eagle Creek Water Resources, LLC...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-20

... Hydropower, LLC, Eagle Creek Land Resources, LLC, Eagle Creek Water Resources, LLC; Notice of Application...: Eagle Creek Hydropower, LLC; Eagle Creek Land Resources, LLC; and Eagle Creek Water Resources, LLC. e... Contact: Robert Gates, Senior Vice President-- Operations, Eagle Creek Hydropower, LLC, Eagle Creek Water...

Multi-objective Operation Chart Optimization for Aquatic Species Habitat Conservation of Cascaded Hydropower System on Yuan River, Southwestern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, X.; Lei, X.; Fang, G.; Huang, X.

2017-12-01

Extensive cascading hydropower exploitation in southwestern China has been the subject of debate and conflict in recent years. Introducing limited ecological curves, a novel approach for derivation of hydropower-ecological joint operation chart of cascaded hydropower system was proposed, aiming to optimize the general hydropower and ecological benefits, and to alleviate the ecological deterioration in specific flood/dry conditions. The physical habitat simulation model is proposed initially to simulate the relationship between streamflow and physical habitat of target fish species and to determine the optimal ecological flow range of representative reach. The ecological—hydropower joint optimization model is established to produce the multi-objective operation chart of cascaded hydropower system. Finally, the limited ecological guiding curves were generated and added into the operation chart. The JS-MDS cascaded hydropower system on the Yuan River in southwestern China is employed as the research area. As the result, the proposed guiding curves could increase the hydropower production amount by 1.72% and 5.99% and optimize ecological conservation degree by 0.27% and 1.13% for JS and MDS Reservoir, respectively. Meanwhile, the ecological deterioration rate also sees a decrease from 6.11% to 1.11% for JS Reservoir and 26.67% to 3.89% for MDS Reservoir.

Efficient operation of a multi-purpose reservoir in Chile: Tradeoffs between irrigation and hydropower production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez Cabrera, J. M., Sr.; Olivares, M. A.

2015-12-01

This study proposes a method to develop efficient operational policies for a reservoir the southern Chile. The main water uses in this system are hydropower and irrigation, with conflicting seasonal demands. The conflict between these two uses is currently managed through a so-called "irrigation agreement" which defines a series of operational conditions on the reservoir by restricting volumes used for power production depending on reservoir storage level. Other than that, the reservoir operation is driven by cost-minimization over the power grid. Recent evidence shows an increasing degree of conflict in this basin, which suggests that the static approach of irrigation agreements, might no longer be appropriate. Moreover, this agreement could be revised in light of decreased water availability. This problem poses a challenge related to the spatial scope of analysis. Thus, irrigation benefits are driven by decisions made within the basin, whereas hydropower benefits depend on the operation of the entire power grid. Exploring the tradeoffs between these two water uses involves modeling both scales. The proposed methodology integrates information from both a grid-wide power operations model and a basin-wide agro-economic model into a decision model for optimal reservoir operation. The first model, a hydrothermal coordination tool, schedules power production by each plant in the grid, and allows capturing technical and economic aspects to the operation of hydropower reservoirs. The agro-economic model incorporates economic features of irrigation in the basin, and allows obtaining irrigation water demand functions. Finally, the results of both models are integrated into a single model for optimal reservoir operation considering the tradeoffs between the two uses. The result of the joint operation of water resources, show a flexible coordination of uses, revealing the opportunity cost of irrigation, which it gives the possibility of negotiating transfers of water to hydropower in dry years, with the aim of obtaining greater benefits from water use in the basin

Characterizing effects of hydropower plants on sub-daily flow regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bejarano, María Dolores; Sordo-Ward, Álvaro; Alonso, Carlos; Nilsson, Christer

2017-07-01

A characterization of short-term changes in river flow is essential for understanding the ecological effects of hydropower plants, which operate by turning the turbines on or off to generate electricity following variations in the market demand (i.e., hydropeaking). The goal of our study was to develop an approach for characterizing the effects of hydropower plant operations on within-day flow regimes across multiple dams and rivers. For this aim we first defined ecologically meaningful metrics that provide a full representation of the flow regime at short time scales from free-flowing rivers and rivers exposed to hydropeaking. We then defined metrics that enable quantification of the deviation of the altered short-term flow regime variables from those of the unaltered state. The approach was successfully tested in two rivers in northern Sweden, one free-flowing and another regulated by cascades of hydropower plants, which were additionally classified based on their impact on short-term flows in sites of similar management. The largest differences between study sites corresponded to metrics describing sub-daily flow magnitudes such as amplitude (i.e., difference between the highest and the lowest hourly flows) and rates (i.e., rise and fall rates of hourly flows). They were closely followed by frequency-related metrics accounting for the numbers of within-day hourly flow patterns (i.e., rises, falls and periods of stability of hourly flows). In comparison, between-site differences for the duration-related metrics were smallest. In general, hydropeaking resulted in higher within-day flow amplitudes and rates and more but shorter periods of a similar hourly flow patterns per day. The impacted flow feature and the characteristics of the impact (i.e., intensity and whether the impact increases or decreases whatever is being described by the metric) varied with season. Our approach is useful for catchment management planning, defining environmental flow targets, prioritizing river restoration or dam reoperation efforts and contributing information for relicensing hydropower dams.

Use of multicriteria analysis (MCA) for sustainable hydropower planning and management.

PubMed

Vassoney, Erica; Mammoliti Mochet, Andrea; Comoglio, Claudio

2017-07-01

Multicriteria analysis (MCA) is a decision-making tool applied to a wide range of environmental management problems, including renewable energy planning and management. An interesting field of application of MCA is the evaluation and analysis of the conflicting aspects of hydropower (HP) exploitation, affecting the three pillars of sustainability and involving several different stakeholders. The present study was aimed at reviewing the state of the art of MCA applications to sustainable hydropower production and related decision-making problems, based on a detailed analysis of the scientific papers published over the last 15 years on this topic. The papers were analysed and compared, focusing on the specific features of the MCA methods applied in the described case studies, highlighting the general aspects of the MCA application (purpose, spatial scale, software used, stakeholders, etc.) and the specific operational/technical features of the selected MCA technique (methodology, criteria, evaluation, approach, sensitivity, etc.). Some specific limitations of the analysed case studies were identified and a set of "quality indexes" of an exhaustive MCA application were suggested as potential improvements for more effectively support decision-making processes in sustainable HP planning and management problems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

75 FR 18193 - Northern Illinois Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-09

... Illinois Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions To Intervene and... No.: 12626-002. c. Date filed: March 31, 2009. d. Applicant: Northern Illinois Hydropower, LLC. e... Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r). h. Applicant Contact: Damon Zdunich, Northern Illinois Hydropower...

75 FR 24937 - Northern Illinois Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-06

... Illinois Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions To Intervene and... No.: 12717-002. c. Date filed: May 27, 2009. d. Applicant: Northern Illinois Hydropower, LLC. e. Name... Hydropower, LLC, 801 Oakland Avenue, Joliet, IL 60435, (312) 320-1610. i. FERC Contact: Dr. Nicholas Palso...

75 FR 61474 - Juneau Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Intent To File License Application, Filing of Pre-Application...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-05

... Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Intent To File License Application, Filing of Pre-Application Document, and....: 13563-001. c. Dated Filed: July 28, 2010. d. Submitted By: Juneau Hydropower, Inc. e. Name of Project... Commission's regulations. h. Potential Applicant Contact: Duff W. Mitchell, Juneau Hydropower, Inc., P.O. Box...

75 FR 10230 - Inglis Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions To...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-05

... Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Motions To Intervene and Protests... No.: P-12783-003. c. Date filed: July 22, 2009. d. Applicant: Inglis Hydropower, LLC. e. Name of Project: Inglis Hydropower Project. f. Location: The proposed project would be located at the existing...

75 FR 45106 - Great River Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-02

... Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Tendered for Filing With the Commission and Soliciting Additional... License. b. Project No.: P-13637-001. c. Date filed: July 12, 2010. d. Applicant: Great River Hydropower.... 21, and would consist of the following facilities: (1) A new hydropower structure, located about 100...

76 FR 7835 - Great River Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental Site Review and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-11

... Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental Site Review and Soliciting Scoping Comments.... c. Date filed: July 12, 2010. d. Applicant: Great River Hydropower, LLC. e. Name of Project: Upper... 796-foot-long by 46-foot-wide by 25-foot-high concrete hydropower structure consisting of 30 turbine...

Winter electricity supply and seasonal storage deficit in the Swiss Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manso, Pedro; Monay, Blaise; Dujardin, Jérôme; Schaefli, Bettina; Schleiss, Anton

2017-04-01

Switzerland electricity production depends at 60% on hydropower, most of the remainder coming from nuclear power plants. The ongoing energy transition foresees an increase in renewable electricity production of solar photovoltaic, wind and geothermal origin to replace part of nuclear production; hydropower, in its several forms, will continue to provide the backbone and the guarantee of the instantaneous and permanent stability of the electric system. One of the key elements of any future portfolio of electricity mix with higher shares of intermittent energy sources like wind and solar are fast energy storage and energy deployment solutions. Hydropower schemes with pumping capabilities are eligible for storage at different time scales, whereas high-head storage hydropower schemes have already a cornerstone role in today's grid operation. These hydropower storage schemes have also been doing what can be labelled as "seasonal energy storage" in different extents, storing abundant flows in the wet season (summer) to produce electricity in the dry (winter) alpine season. Some of the existing reservoirs are however under sized with regards to the available water inflows and either spill over or operate as "run-of-the-river" which is economically suboptimal. Their role in seasonal energy transfer could increase through storage capacity increase (by dam heightening, by new storage dams in the same catchment). Inversely, other reservoirs that already store most of the wet season inflow might not fill up in the future in case inflows decrease due to climate changes; these reservoirs might then have extra storage capacity available to store energy from sources like solar and wind, if water pumping capacity is added or increased. The present work presents a comprehensive methodology for the identification of the seasonal storage deficit per catchment considering todays and future hydrological conditions with climate change, applied to several landmark case studies in Switzerland. In some cases additional storage would allow mitigating negative impacts of climate change. In one of the tested cases the decrease in inflows is such that the reservoir will not fill up in the future; this reservoir will become a priority location for pumping capacity increase, for short-term or seasonal storage of excess solar/wind energy. Considering that the present average rate of glacier mass loss at the country scale is equivalent to the Grande Dixence reservoir per year (the largest Swiss reservoir, approx. 380 hm3), increasing artificial water storage might become mandatory to maintain the same level of security electricity supply in the future.

Opportunities for Energy Development in Water Conduits: A Report Prepared in Response to Section 7 of the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sale, Michael J.; Bishop, Norman A.; Reiser, Sonya L.

2014-09-01

In Section 7 of the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act (HREA) of 2013 (P.L. 113-23), Congress directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to prepare an analysis of conduit hydropower opportunities available in the United States and to present case studies that describe the potential energy generation from these types of hydropower projects. Those analyses have been included in a new DOE report to Congress, and this ORNL/TM provides additional technical details supporting that report. Conduit hydropower offers important new ways to enhance renewable energy portfolios in the United States, as well as to increase the energy efficiency of water deliverymore » systems. Conduit hydropower projects are constructed on existing water-conveyance structures, such as irrigation canals or pressurized pipelines that deliver water to municipalities, industry, or agricultural water users. Although water conveyance infrastructures are usually designed for non-power purposes, new renewable energy can often be harvested from them without affecting their original purpose and without the need to construct new dams or diversions. Conduit hydropower differs from more conventional hydropower development in that it is generally not located on natural rivers or waterways and therefore does not involve the types of environmental impacts that are associated with hydropower. The addition of hydropower to existing water conduits can provide valuable new revenue sources from clean, renewable energy. The new energy can be used within the existing water distribution systems to offset other energy demands, or it can be sold into regional transmission systems.« less

Valuing trade-offs of river ecosystem services in large hydropower development in Tibet, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, B.; Xu, L.

2015-12-01

Hydropower development can be considered as a kind of trade-offs of ecosystem services generated by human activity for their economic and energy demand, because it can increase some river ecosystem services but decrease others. In this context, an ecosystem service trade-off framework in hydropower development was proposed in this paper. It aims to identify the ecological cost of river ecosystem and serve for the ecological compensation during hydropower development, for the hydropower services cannot completely replace the regulating services of river ecosystem. The valuing trade-offs framework was integrated by the influenced ecosystem services identification and ecosystem services valuation, through ecological monitoring and ecological economic methods, respectively. With a case study of Pondo hydropower project in Tibet, China, the valuing trade-offs of river ecosystem services in large hydropower development was illustrated. The typical ecological factors including water, sediment and soil were analyzed in this study to identify the altered river ecosystem services by Pondo hydropower project. Through the field monitoring and valuation, the results showed that the Lhasa River ecosystem services value could be changed annually by Pondo hydropower project with the increment of 5.7E+8CNY, and decrement of 5.1E+7CNY. The ecological compensation for river ecosystem should be focus on water and soil conservation, reservoir dredging and tributaries habitat protection.

76 FR 19765 - Toutant Hydropower Inc.; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing, Soliciting Comments, Motions...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-08

... refurbished and re-installed small ``fire pump'' turbine direct coupled to a 120 kilowatt, 2300 volt, AC synchronous vertically mounted generator. The ``fire pump'' turbine is located in the southwest corner of the existing turbine pit. The ``fire pump'' turbine has a rated maximum hydraulic capacity of 106 cubic feet...

Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act

THOMAS, 113th Congress

Sen. Barrasso, John [R-WY

2013-02-13

Senate - 06/03/2013 By Senator Wyden from Committee on Energy and Natural Resources filed written report. Report No. 113-35. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.678, which became Public Law 113-24 on 8/9/2013. Tracker: This bill has the status IntroducedHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Mass marking of juvenile Schizothorax wangchiachii (Fang) with alizarin red S and evaluation of stock enhancement in the Jinping area of the Yalong River

PubMed Central

Yang, Kun; Li, Shu; Liu, Xiaoshuai; Gan, Weixiong; Deng, Longjun; Tang, Yezhong

2017-01-01

Schizothorax wangchiachii is a key fish species in the stock enhancement program of the Yalong River hydropower project, China. Alizarin red S (ARS) was used to mark large numbers of juvenile S. wangchiachii in the Jinping Hatchery and later used to evaluate stock enhancement in the Jinping area of the Yalong River. In a small-scale pilot study, 7,000 juveniles of the 2014 cohort were successfully marked by immersion in ARS solution, and no mortality was recorded during the marking process. The ARS mark in the fish otoliths remained visible 20 months later. In the large-scale marking study, approximately 600,000 juveniles of the 2015 cohort were successfully marked. Mortalities of both marked and unmarked juveniles were very low and did not differ significantly. Total length, wet mass and condition factor did not differ significantly between unmarked and marked individuals after three months. On 24 July 2015, about 840,000 Jinping Hatchery-produced young S. wangchiachii, including 400,000 marked individuals, were released at two sites in the Jinping area. Recapture surveys showed that (1) marked and unmarked S. wangchiachii did not differ significantly in total length, wet mass and condition factor; (2) stocked individuals became an important part of recruitment of the 2015 cohort; (3) instantaneous growth rate of marked individuals tended to slightly increase; and (4) most stocked individuals were distributed along a 10–15 km stretch near the release sites. These results suggest that the ARS method is a cost-efficient way to mass mark juvenile S. wangchiachii and that releasing juveniles is an effective means of stock recruitment. PMID:29230371

Identifying high energy density stream-reaches through refined geospatial resolution in hydropower resource assessment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pasha, M. Fayzul K.; Yang, Majntxov; Yeasmin, Dilruba

Benefited from the rapid development of multiple geospatial data sets on topography, hydrology, and existing energy-water infrastructures, the reconnaissance level hydropower resource assessment can now be conducted using geospatial models in all regions of the US. Furthermore, the updated techniques can be used to estimate the total undeveloped hydropower potential across all regions, and may eventually help identify further hydropower opportunities that were previously overlooked. To enhance the characterization of higher energy density stream-reaches, this paper explored the sensitivity of geospatial resolution on the identification of hydropower stream-reaches using the geospatial merit matrix based hydropower resource assessment (GMM-HRA) model. GMM-HRAmore » model simulation was conducted with eight different spatial resolutions on six U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 8-digit hydrologic units (HUC8) located at three different terrains; Flat, Mild, and Steep. The results showed that more hydropower potential from higher energy density stream-reaches can be identified with increasing spatial resolution. Both Flat and Mild terrains exhibited lower impacts compared to the Steep terrain. Consequently, greater attention should be applied when selecting the discretization resolution for hydropower resource assessments in the future study.« less

Identifying high energy density stream-reaches through refined geospatial resolution in hydropower resource assessment

DOE PAGES

Pasha, M. Fayzul K.; Yang, Majntxov; Yeasmin, Dilruba; ...

2016-01-07

Benefited from the rapid development of multiple geospatial data sets on topography, hydrology, and existing energy-water infrastructures, the reconnaissance level hydropower resource assessment can now be conducted using geospatial models in all regions of the US. Furthermore, the updated techniques can be used to estimate the total undeveloped hydropower potential across all regions, and may eventually help identify further hydropower opportunities that were previously overlooked. To enhance the characterization of higher energy density stream-reaches, this paper explored the sensitivity of geospatial resolution on the identification of hydropower stream-reaches using the geospatial merit matrix based hydropower resource assessment (GMM-HRA) model. GMM-HRAmore » model simulation was conducted with eight different spatial resolutions on six U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 8-digit hydrologic units (HUC8) located at three different terrains; Flat, Mild, and Steep. The results showed that more hydropower potential from higher energy density stream-reaches can be identified with increasing spatial resolution. Both Flat and Mild terrains exhibited lower impacts compared to the Steep terrain. Consequently, greater attention should be applied when selecting the discretization resolution for hydropower resource assessments in the future study.« less

Hydropower plans in eastern and southern Africa increase risk of concurrent climate-related electricity supply disruption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conway, Declan; Dalin, Carole; Landman, Willem A.; Osborn, Timothy J.

2017-12-01

Hydropower comprises a significant and rapidly expanding proportion of electricity production in eastern and southern Africa. In both regions, hydropower is exposed to high levels of climate variability and regional climate linkages are strong, yet an understanding of spatial interdependences is lacking. Here we consider river basin configuration and define regions of coherent rainfall variability using cluster analysis to illustrate exposure to the risk of hydropower supply disruption of current (2015) and planned (2030) hydropower sites. Assuming completion of the dams planned, hydropower will become increasingly concentrated in the Nile (from 62% to 82% of total regional capacity) and Zambezi (from 73% to 85%) basins. By 2030, 70% and 59% of total hydropower capacity will be located in one cluster of rainfall variability in eastern and southern Africa, respectively, increasing the risk of concurrent climate-related electricity supply disruption in each region. Linking of nascent regional electricity sharing mechanisms could mitigate intraregional risk, although these mechanisms face considerable political and infrastructural challenges.

An improved method for evaluating ecological suitability of hydropower development by considering water footprint and transportation connectivity in Tibet, China.

PubMed

Cui, Guannan; Wang, Xuan; Xu, Linyu; Zhang, Jin; Yu, Bing

2014-01-01

Ecological suitability evaluation for hydropower development is effective in locating the most suitable area for construction and emphasizes a clear direction for water resources governance. In this paper, water footprints and transportation connectivity were introduced to improve the existing ecological suitability evaluation application for hydropower development by revising the defects of the traditional indicator system. The following conclusions were reached. (1) Tibet was in a state of water use surplus; the prospect of further hydropower development is positive. (2) Chamdo, Lhasa and Nyingchi excelled in water use efficiency, and Ali was placed last. Nakchu was slightly superior to Ali, but it lagged behind the southern regions. Lhasa, Chamdo, Nyingchi, Xigaze and Shannan were suitable for hydropower development, which could further meet local needs and benefit other regions of China. (3) The evaluation results were in accordance with the actual eco-environmental conditions of the built hydropower projects, indicating that current hydropower development planning was basically reasonable.

Game theory competition analysis of reservoir water supply and hydropower generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, T.

2013-12-01

The total installed capacity of the power generation systems in Taiwan is about 41,000 MW. Hydropower is one of the most important renewable energy sources, with hydropower generation capacity of about 4,540 MW. The aim of this research is to analyze competition between water supply and hydropower generation in water-energy systems. The major relationships between water and energy systems include hydropower generation by water, energy consumption for water system operation, and water consumption for energy system. In this research, a game-theoretic Cournot model is formulated to simulate oligopolistic competition between water supply, hydropower generation, and co-fired power generation in water-energy systems. A Nash equilibrium of the competitive market is derived and solved by GAMS with PATH solver. In addition, a case study analyzing the competition among water supply and hydropower generation of De-ji and Ku-Kuan reservoirs, Taipower, Star Energy, and Star-Yuan power companies in central Taiwan is conducted.

Hydropower Resource Assessment of Brazilian Streams

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Douglas G. Hall

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with the assistance of the Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE) and the Agencia Nacional de Energia Electrica (ANEEL) has performed a comprehensive assessment of the hydropower potential of all Brazilian natural streams. The methodology by which the assessment was performed is described. The results of the assessment are presented including an estimate of the hydropower potential for all of Brazil, and the spatial distribution of hydropower potential thus providing results on a state by state basis. The assessment results have been incorporated into a geographic information systemmore » (GIS) application for the Internet called the Virtual Hydropower Prospector do Brasil. VHP do Brasil displays potential hydropower sites on a map of Brazil in the context of topography and hydrography, existing power and transportation infrastructure, populated places and political boundaries, and land use. The features of the application, which includes tools for finding and selecting potential hydropower sites and other features and displaying their attributes, is fully described.« less

Economic Analysis of the Impacts of Climate-Induced Changes in River Flow on Hydropower and Fisheries in Himalayan region.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khadka Mishra, S.; Hayse, J.; Veselka, T.; Yan, E.; Kayastha, R. B.; McDonald, K.; Steiner, N.; Lagory, K.

2017-12-01

Climate-mediated changes in melting of snow and glaciers and in precipitation patterns are expected to significantly alter the water flow of rivers at various spatial and temporal scales. Hydropower generation and fisheries are likely to be impacted annually and over the century by the seasonal as well as long-term changes in hydrological conditions. In order to quantify the interactions between the drivers of climate change, the hydropower sector and the ecosystem we developed an integrated assessment framework that links climate models with process-based bio-physical and economic models. This framework was applied to estimate the impacts of changes in snow and glacier melt on the stream flow of the Trishuli River of the High Mountain Asia Region. Remotely-sensed data and derived products, as well as in-situ data, were used to quantify the changes in snow and glacier melt. The hydrological model was calibrated and validated for stream flows at various points in the Trishuli river in order to forecast conditions at the location of a stream gauge station upstream of the Trishuli hydropower plant. The flow of Trishuli River was projected to increase in spring and decrease in summer over the period of 2020-2100 under RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5 scenarios as compared to respective mean seasonal discharge observed over 1981-2014. The simulated future annual mean stream flow would increase by 0.6 m3/s under RCP 8.5 scenario but slightly decrease under RCP 4.5. The Argonne Hydropower Energy and Economic toolkit was used to estimate and forecast electricity generation at the Trishuli power plant under various flow conditions and upgraded infrastructure. The increased spring flow is expected to increase dry-season electricity generation by 18% under RCP 8.5 in comparison to RCP 4.5. A fishery suitability model developed for the basin indicated that fishery suitability in the Trishuli River would be greater than 70% of optimal, even during dry months under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The estimated economic value (preliminary result) of electricity generated from the Trishuli hydropower plant under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 were projected to be 3.7% to 7.5% higher for the month of March while for the months of April and May the values were1.5% to 9.4% lower.

Small Scale Irrigation Systems: A Training Manual. Planning--Construction--Operation and Maintenance of Small Scale Irrigation Systems. A Two-Week In-Service Training Program for Peace Corps Volunteers. Training for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Training Manual No. T-13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Development Planning and Research Associates, Inc., Manhattan, KS.

This manual provides materials for a two-week inservice training program for Peace Corps volunteers on the planning, construction, and operation and maintenance of small-scale irrigation systems. The workshop is designed to be given by two experienced professionals: one with practical knowledge of irrigation system design, operation, and…

JEDI Conventional Hydropower Model | Jobs and Economic Development Impact

Science.gov Websites

Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) Conventional Hydropower Model allows users to estimate economic development impacts from conventional hydropower projects and includes default information that can be

75 FR 51451 - Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Intent To File License Application, Filing of Pre...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-20

... Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Intent To File License Application, Filing of Pre-Application Document, and.... Project No.: 7320-040. c. Dated Filed: June 29, 2010. d. Submitted By: Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P. e...: John Mudre at (202) 502-8902; or e-mail at [email protected] . j. Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P...

2014 Hydropower Market Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Uria-Martinez, Rocio; O'Connor, Patrick W.; Johnson, Megan M.

2015-04-30

The U.S. hydropower fleet has been providing clean, reliable power for more than a hundred years. However, no systematic documentation exists of the U.S. fleet and the trends influencing it in recent years. This first-ever Hydropower Market Report seeks to fill this gap and provide industry and policy makers with a quantitative baseline on the distribution, capabilities, and status of hydropower in the United States.

Hydropower | Climate Neutral Research Campuses | NREL

Science.gov Websites

how hydropower may fit into your climate action plans. Campus Options Considerations Sample Project action plan. A history of the Cornell hydropower plant is available on the university's website. Examples

Complementing hydropower with PV and wind: optimal energy mix in a fully renewable Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dujardin, Jérôme; Kahl, Annelen; Kruyt, Bert; Lehning, Michael

2017-04-01

Like several other countries, Switzerland plans to phase out its nuclear power production and will replace most or all of it by renewables. Switzerland has the chance to benefit from a large hydropower potential and has already exploited almost all of it. Currently about 60% of the Swiss electricity consumption is covered by hydropower, which will eventually leave a gap of about 40% to the other renewables mainly composed of photovoltaics (PV) and wind. With its high flexibility, storage hydropower will play a major role in the future energy mix, providing valuable power and energy balance. Our work focuses on the interplay between PV, wind and storage hydropower, to analyze the dynamics of this complex system and to identify the best PV-wind mixing ratio. Given the current electricity consumption and the currently installed pumping capacity of the storage hydropower plants, it appears that the Swiss hydropower system can completely alleviate the intermittency of PV and wind. However, some seasonal mismatch between production and demand will remain, but we show that oversizing the production from PV and wind or enlarging the reservoir capacity can be a solution to keep it to an acceptable level or even eliminate it. We found that PV, wind and hydropower performs the best together when the share of PV in the solar - wind mix is between 20 and 60%. These findings are quantitatively specific for Switzerland but qualitatively transferable to similar mountainous environments with abundant hydropower resources.

Hydro turbine governor’s power control of hydroelectric unit with sloping ceiling tailrace tunnel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Liang; Wu, Changli; Tang, Weiping

2018-02-01

The primary frequency regulation and load regulation transient process when the hydro turbine governor is under the power mode of hydropower unit with sloping ceiling tailrace are analysed by field test and numerical simulation in this paper. A simulation method based on “three-zone model” to simulate small fluctuation transient process of the sloping ceiling tailrace is proposed. The simulation model of hydraulic turbine governor power mode is established by governor’s PLC program identification and parameter measurement, and the simulation model is verified by the test. The slow-fast-slow “three-stage regulation” method which can improve the dynamic quality of hydro turbine governor power mode is proposed. The power regulation strategy and parameters are optimized by numerical simulation, the performance of primary frequency regulation and load regulation transient process when the hydro turbine governor is under power mode are improved significantly.

China’s rising hydropower demand challenges water sector

PubMed Central

Liu, Junguo; Zhao, Dandan; Gerbens-Leenes, P. W.; Guan, Dabo

2015-01-01

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir WF totaled 27.9 × 109 m3 (Gm3), or 22% of China’s total water consumption. Ignoring the reservoir WF seriously underestimates human water appropriation. The reservoir WF associated with industrial, domestic and agricultural WFs caused water scarcity in 6 of the 10 major Chinese river basins from 2 to 12 months annually. The hydropower WF was 6.6 Gm3 yr−1 or 3.6 m3 of water to produce a GJ (109 J) of electricity. Hydropower is a water intensive energy carrier. As a response to global climate change, the Chinese government has promoted a further increase in hydropower energy by 70% by 2020 compared to 2012. This energy policy imposes pressure on available freshwater resources and increases water scarcity. The water-energy nexus requires strategic and coordinated implementations of hydropower development among geographical regions, as well as trade-off analysis between rising energy demand and water use sustainability. PMID:26158871

EPRI-DOE Conference on Environmentally-Enhanced Hydropower Turbines: Technical Papers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hogan, T.

2011-12-01

The EPRI-DOE Conference on Environmentally-Enhanced Hydropower Turbines was a component of a larger project. The goal of the overall project was to conduct the final developmental engineering required to advance the commercialization of the Alden turbine. As part of this effort, the conference provided a venue to disseminate information on the status of the Alden turbine technology as well as the status of other advanced turbines and research on environmentally-friendly hydropower turbines. The conference was also a product of a federal Memorandum of Understanding among DOE, USBR, and USACE to share technical information on hydropower. The conference was held inmore » Washington, DC on May 19 and 20, 2011 and welcomed over 100 attendees. The Conference Organizing Committee included the federal agencies with a vested interest in hydropower in the U.S. The Committee collaboratively assembled this conference, including topics from each facet of the environmentally-friendly conventional hydropower research community. The conference was successful in illustrating the readiness of environmentally-enhanced hydropower technologies. Furthermore, the topics presented illustrated the need for additional deployment and field testing of these technologies in an effort to promote the growth of environmentally sustainable hydropower in the U.S. and around the world.« less

China's rising hydropower demand challenges water sector.

PubMed

Liu, Junguo; Zhao, Dandan; Gerbens-Leenes, P W; Guan, Dabo

2015-07-09

Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir WF totaled 27.9 × 10(9) m(3) (Gm(3)), or 22% of China's total water consumption. Ignoring the reservoir WF seriously underestimates human water appropriation. The reservoir WF associated with industrial, domestic and agricultural WFs caused water scarcity in 6 of the 10 major Chinese river basins from 2 to 12 months annually. The hydropower WF was 6.6 Gm(3) yr(-1) or 3.6 m(3) of water to produce a GJ (10(9) J) of electricity. Hydropower is a water intensive energy carrier. As a response to global climate change, the Chinese government has promoted a further increase in hydropower energy by 70% by 2020 compared to 2012. This energy policy imposes pressure on available freshwater resources and increases water scarcity. The water-energy nexus requires strategic and coordinated implementations of hydropower development among geographical regions, as well as trade-off analysis between rising energy demand and water use sustainability.

Projecting changes in annual hydropower generation using regional runoff data: An assessment of the United States federal hydropower plants

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kao, Shih -Chieh; Sale, Michael J.; Ashfaq, Moetasim

Federal hydropower plants account for approximately half of installed US conventional hydropower capacity, and are an important part of the national renewable energy portfolio. Utilizing the strong linear relationship between the US Geological Survey WaterWatch runoff and annual hydropower generation, a runoff-based assessment approach is introduced in this study to project changes in annual and regional hydropower generation in multiple power marketing areas. Future climate scenarios are developed with a series of global and regional climate models, and the model output is bias-corrected to be consistent with observed data for the recent past. Using this approach, the median decrease inmore » annual generation at federal projects is projected to be less than –2 TWh, with an estimated ensemble uncertainty of ±9 TWh. Although these estimates are similar to the recently observed variability in annual hydropower generation, and may therefore appear to be manageable, significantly seasonal runoff changes are projected and it may pose significant challenges in water systems with higher limits on reservoir storage and operational flexibility. Lastly, future assessments will be improved by incorporating next-generation climate models, by closer examination of extreme events and longer-term change, and by addressing the interactions among hydropower and other water uses.« less

Projecting changes in annual hydropower generation using regional runoff data: An assessment of the United States federal hydropower plants

DOE PAGES

Kao, Shih -Chieh; Sale, Michael J.; Ashfaq, Moetasim; ...

2014-12-18

Federal hydropower plants account for approximately half of installed US conventional hydropower capacity, and are an important part of the national renewable energy portfolio. Utilizing the strong linear relationship between the US Geological Survey WaterWatch runoff and annual hydropower generation, a runoff-based assessment approach is introduced in this study to project changes in annual and regional hydropower generation in multiple power marketing areas. Future climate scenarios are developed with a series of global and regional climate models, and the model output is bias-corrected to be consistent with observed data for the recent past. Using this approach, the median decrease inmore » annual generation at federal projects is projected to be less than –2 TWh, with an estimated ensemble uncertainty of ±9 TWh. Although these estimates are similar to the recently observed variability in annual hydropower generation, and may therefore appear to be manageable, significantly seasonal runoff changes are projected and it may pose significant challenges in water systems with higher limits on reservoir storage and operational flexibility. Lastly, future assessments will be improved by incorporating next-generation climate models, by closer examination of extreme events and longer-term change, and by addressing the interactions among hydropower and other water uses.« less

Modular Hydropower Engineering and Pilot Scale Manufacturing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chesser, Phillip C.

Emrgy has developed, prototyped and tested a modular hydropower system for renewable energy generation. ORNL worked with Emrgy to demonstrate the use of additive manufacturing in the production of the hydrofoils and spokes for the hydrokinetic system. Specifically, during Phase 1 of this effort, ORNL printed and finished machined patterns for both the hydrofoils and spokes that were subsequently used in a sand casting manufacturing process. Emrgy utilized the sand castings for a pilot installation in Denver, CO, where the parts represented an 80% cost savings from the previous prototype build that was manufactured using subtractive manufacturing. In addition, themore » castings were completed with ORNL’s newly developed AlCeMg alloy that will be tested for performance improvements including higher corrosion resistance in a water application than the 6160 alloy used previously« less

Present and future hydropower scheduling in Statkraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bruland, O.

2012-12-01

Statkraft produces close to 40 TWH in an average year and is one of the largest hydropower producers in Europe. For hydropower producers the scheduling of electricity generation is the key to success and this depend on optimal use of the water resources. The hydrologist and his forecasts both on short and on long terms are crucial to this success. The hydrological forecasts in Statkraft and most hydropower companies in Scandinavia are based on lumped models and the HBV concept. But before the hydrological model there is a complex system for collecting, controlling and correcting data applied in the models and the production scheduling and, equally important, routines for surveillance of the processes and manual intervention. Prior to the forecasting the states in the hydrological models are updated based on observations. When snow is present in the catchments snow surveys are an important source for model updating. The meteorological forecast is another premise provider to the hydrological forecast and to get as precise meteorological forecast as possible Statkraft hires resources from the governmental forecasting center. Their task is to interpret the meteorological situation, describe the uncertainties and if necessary use their knowledge and experience to manually correct the forecast in the hydropower production regions. This is one of several forecast applied further in the scheduling process. Both to be able to compare and evaluate different forecast providers and to ensure that we get the best available forecast, forecasts from different sources are applied. Some of these forecasts have undergone statistical corrections to reduce biases. The uncertainties related to the meteorological forecast have for a long time been approached and described by ensemble forecasts. But also the observations used for updating the model have a related uncertainty. Both to the observations itself and to how well they represent the catchment. Though well known, these uncertainties have thus far been handled superficially. Statkraft has initiated a program called ENKI to approach these issues. A part of this program is to apply distributed models for hydrological forecasting. Developing methodologies to handle uncertainties in the observations, the meteorological forecasts, the model itself and how to update the model with this information are other parts of the program. Together with energy price expectations and information about the state of the energy production system the hydrological forecast is input to the next step in the production scheduling both on short and long term. The long term schedule for reservoir filling is premise provider to the short term optimizing of water. The long term schedule is based on the actual reservoir levels, snow storages and a long history of meteorological observations and gives an overall schedule at a regional level. Within the regions a more detailed tool is used for short term optimizing of the hydropower production Each reservoir is scheduled taking into account restrictions in the water courses and cost of start and stop of aggregates. The value of the water is calculated for each reservoir and reflects the risk of water spillage. This compared to the energy price determines whether an aggregate will run or not. In a gradually more complex energy system with relatively lower regulated capacity this is an increasingly more challenging task.

Noise characteristics of upper surface blown configurations. Experimental program and results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, W. H.; Searle, N.; Blakney, D. F.; Pennock, A. P.; Gibson, J. S.

1977-01-01

An experimental data base was developed from the model upper surface blowing (USB) propulsive lift system hardware. While the emphasis was on far field noise data, a considerable amount of relevant flow field data were also obtained. The data were derived from experiments in four different facilities resulting in: (1) small scale static flow field data; (2) small scale static noise data; (3) small scale simulated forward speed noise and load data; and (4) limited larger-scale static noise flow field and load data. All of the small scale tests used the same USB flap parts. Operational and geometrical variables covered in the test program included jet velocity, nozzle shape, nozzle area, nozzle impingement angle, nozzle vertical and horizontal location, flap length, flap deflection angle, and flap radius of curvature.

Modeling Net Land Occupation of Hydropower Reservoirs in Norway for Use in Life Cycle Assessment.

PubMed

Dorber, Martin; May, Roel; Verones, Francesca

2018-02-20

Increasing hydropower electricity production constitutes a unique opportunity to mitigate climate change impacts. However, hydropower electricity production also impacts aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity through freshwater habitat alteration, water quality degradation, and land use and land use change (LULUC). Today, no operational model exists that covers any of these cause-effect pathways within life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper contributes to the assessment of LULUC impacts of hydropower electricity production in Norway in LCA. We quantified the inundated land area associated with 107 hydropower reservoirs with remote sensing data and related it to yearly electricity production. Therewith, we calculated an average net land occupation of 0.027 m 2 ·yr/kWh of Norwegian storage hydropower plants for the life cycle inventory. Further, we calculated an adjusted average land occupation of 0.007 m 2 ·yr/kWh, accounting for an underestimation of water area in the performed maximum likelihood classification. The calculated land occupation values are the basis to support the development of methods for assessing the land occupation impacts of hydropower on biodiversity in LCA at a damage level.

Analysis of a pico tubular-type hydro turbine performance by runner blade shape using CFD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, J. H.; Lee, N. J.; Wata, J. V.; Hwang, Y. C.; Kim, Y. T.; Lee, Y. H.

2012-11-01

There has been a considerable interest recently in the topic of renewable energy. This is primarily due to concerns about environmental impacts of fossil fuels. Moreover, fluctuating and rising oil prices, increase in demand, supply uncertainties and other factors have led to increased calls for alternative energy sources. Small hydropower, among other renewable energy sources, has been evaluated to have adequate development value because it is a clean, renewable and abundant energy resource. In addition, small hydropower has the advantage of low cost development by using rivers, agricultural reservoirs, sewage treatment plants, waterworks and water resources. The main concept of the tubular-type hydro turbine is based on the difference in water pressure levels in pipe lines, where the energy which was initially wasted by using a reducing valve at the pipeline of waterworks, is collected by turbine in the hydro power generator. In this study, in order to acquire the performance data of a pico tubular-type hydro turbine, the output power, head and efficiency characteristics by different runner blade shapes are examined. The pressure and velocity distributions with the variation of guide vane and runner vane angle on turbine performance are investigated by using a commercial CFD code.

Interactions between land use, climate and hydropower in Scotland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sample, James

2015-04-01

To promote the transition towards a low carbon economy, the Scottish Government has adopted ambitious energy targets, including generating all electricity from renewable sources by 2020. To achieve this, continued investment will be required across a range of sustainable technologies. Hydropower has a long history in Scotland and the present-day operational capacity of ~1.5 GW makes a substantial contribution to the national energy budget. In addition, there remains potential for ~500 MW of further development, mostly in the form of small to medium size run-of-river schemes. Climate change is expected to lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle, leading to changes in both the magnitude and seasonality of river flows. There may also be indirect effects, such as changing land use, enhanced evapotranspiration rates and an increased demand for irrigation, all of which could affect the water available for energy generation. Preliminary assessments of hydropower commonly use flow duration curves (FDCs) to estimate the power generation potential at proposed new sites. In this study, we use spatially distributed modelling to generate daily and monthly FDCs on a 1 km by 1 km grid across Scotland, using a variety of future land use and climate change scenarios. Parameter-related uncertainty in the model has been constrained using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques to derive posterior probability distributions for key model parameters. Our results give an indication of the sensitivity and vulnerability of Scotland's run-of-river hydropower resources to possible changes in climate and land use. The effects are spatially variable and the range of uncertainty is sometimes large, but consistent patterns do emerge. For example, many locations are predicted to experience enhanced seasonality, with significantly lower power generation potential in the summer months and greater potential during the autumn and winter. Some sites may require infrastructural changes in order to continue operating at optimum efficiency. We discuss the implications and limitations of our results, and highlight design and adaptation options for maximising the resilience of hydropower installations under changing future flow patterns.

Hydropower Modeling Challenges

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stoll, Brady; Andrade, Juan; Cohen, Stuart

Hydropower facilities are important assets for the electric power sector and represent a key source of flexibility for electric grids with large amounts of variable generation. As variable renewable generation sources expand, understanding the capabilities and limitations of the flexibility from hydropower resources is important for grid planning. Appropriately modeling these resources, however, is difficult because of the wide variety of constraints these plants face that other generators do not. These constraints can be broadly categorized as environmental, operational, and regulatory. This report highlights several key issues involving incorporating these constraints when modeling hydropower operations in terms of production costmore » and capacity expansion. Many of these challenges involve a lack of data to adequately represent the constraints or issues of model complexity and run time. We present several potential methods for improving the accuracy of hydropower representation in these models to allow for a better understanding of hydropower's capabilities.« less

Study on Excavation of Particular Part of Underground Cavern for Hydropower Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yang; Zhang, Feng; Shang, Qin; Zheng, Huakang

2018-01-01

In the present study, regarding four particular parts of underground cavern for hydropower station, i.e., crown, high sidewall, the intersection between high sidewall and tunnel and tailrace tunnel, by summarizing the previous construction experience, we have proposed the excavation approach based on “middle first and edge later, soft first and hard later”, “layered construction by excavating the thin layer first and supporting as the layer advances”, “tunnel first and wall later, small tunnels into large ones” and “excavating tunnels supported by separation piers”. In addition, the proposed excavation approach has been analyzed and verified with finite element numerical simulation. The result has indicated that the proposed special approach is reasonable and effective to reduce the turbulence on surrounding rocks, lower the influence of unloading during excavating and enhance the local and global stability of caverns and surrounding rocks.

The changing hydrology of a dammed Amazon

PubMed Central

Timpe, Kelsie; Kaplan, David

2017-01-01

Developing countries around the world are expanding hydropower to meet growing energy demand. In the Brazilian Amazon, >200 dams are planned over the next 30 years, and questions about the impacts of current and future hydropower in this globally important watershed remain unanswered. In this context, we applied a hydrologic indicator method to quantify how existing Amazon dams have altered the natural flow regime and to identify predictors of alteration. The type and magnitude of hydrologic alteration varied widely by dam, but the largest changes were to critical characteristics of the flood pulse. Impacts were largest for low-elevation, large-reservoir dams; however, small dams had enormous impacts relative to electricity production. Finally, the “cumulative” effect of multiple dams was significant but only for some aspects of the flow regime. This analysis is a first step toward the development of environmental flows plans and policies relevant to the Amazon and other megadiverse river basins. PMID:29109972

Modeling and Simulation of Hydropower Station Diversion System's characteristic line method by introducing water head to flow feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guangwen, Xu; Xi, Li; Ze, Yao

2018-06-01

To solve the damping problem of water hammer wave in the modeling method of water diversion system of hydropower station, this paper introduces the feedback regulation technology from head to flow, that is: A fixed water head is taken out for flow feedback, and the following conclusions are obtained through modeling and simulation. Adjusting the feedback coefficient F of the water head to the flow rate can change the damping characteristic of the system, which can simulate the attenuation process of the water shock wave in the true water diversion pipeline. Even if a small feedback coefficient is introduced, the damping effect of the system is very obvious, but it has little effect on the amplitude of the first water shock wave after the transition process. Therefore, it is feasible and reasonable to introduce water head to flow rate feedback coefficient F in hydraulic turbine diversion system.

Small Scale Marine Fisheries: An Extension Training Manual. TR-30.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinson, Steven; And Others

This manual is designed for use in a preservice training program for prospective volunteers whose Peace Corps service will be spent working with small-scale artisanal fishing communities in developing nations. The program consists of 8 weeks of intensive training to develop competencies in marine fisheries technology and fisheries extension work…

Small mammal responses to Amazonian forest islands are modulated by their forest dependence.

PubMed

Palmeirim, Ana Filipa; Benchimol, Maíra; Vieira, Marcus Vinícius; Peres, Carlos A

2018-05-01

Hydroelectric dams have induced widespread loss, fragmentation and degradation of terrestrial habitats in lowland tropical forests. Yet their ecological impacts have been widely neglected, particularly in developing countries, which are currently earmarked for exponential hydropower development. Here we assess small mammal assemblage responses to Amazonian forest habitat insularization induced by the 28-year-old Balbina Hydroelectric Dam. We sampled small mammals on 25 forest islands (0.83-1466 ha) and four continuous forest sites in the mainland to assess the overall community structure and species-specific responses to forest insularization. We classified all species according to their degree of forest-dependency using a multi-scale approach, considering landscape, patch and local habitat characteristics. Based on 65,520 trap-nights, we recorded 884 individuals of at least 22 small mammal species. Species richness was best predicted by island area and isolation, with small islands (< 15 ha) harbouring an impoverished nested subset of species (mean ± SD: 2.6 ± 1.3 species), whereas large islands (> 200 ha; 10.8 ± 1.3 species) and continuous forest sites (∞ ha; 12.5 ± 2.5 species) exhibited similarly high species richness. Forest-dependent species showed higher local extinction rates and were often either absent or persisted at low abundances on small islands, where non-forest-dependent species became hyper-abundant. Species capacity to use non-forest habitat matrices appears to dictate small mammal success in small isolated islands. We suggest that ecosystem functioning may be highly disrupted on small islands, which account for 62.7% of all 3546 islands in the Balbina Reservoir.

Disappearing rivers — The limits of environmental assessment for hydropower in India

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Erlewein, Alexander, E-mail: erlewein@sai.uni-heidelberg.de

2013-11-15

The mountain rivers of the Indian Himalaya possess a vast potential for hydropower generation. After decades of comparatively modest development recent years have seen a major intensification in the construction of new hydropower dams. Although increasingly portrayed as a form of renewable energy generation, hydropower development may lead to extensive alterations of fluvial systems and conflicts with resource use patterns of local communities. To appraise and reduce adverse effects is the purpose of statutory Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and corresponding mitigation plans. However, in the light of ambitious policies for hydropower expansion conventional approaches of environmental assessment are increasingly challengedmore » to keep up with the intensity and pace of development. This paper aims to explore the systemic limitations of environmental assessment for hydropower development in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Based on a qualitative methodology involving interviews with environmental experts, document reviews and field observations the study suggests that the current practice of constraining EIAs to the project level fails to address the larger effects of extensive hydropower development. Furthermore, it is critically discussed as to what extent the concept of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) might have the potential to overcome existing shortcomings.« less

Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levine, Aaron L

Hydropower Regulatory and Permitting Information Desktop (RAPID) Toolkit presentation from the WPTO FY14-FY16 Peer Review. The toolkit is aimed at regulatory agencies, consultants, project developers, the public, and any other party interested in learning more about the hydropower regulatory process.

Hydropower Vision: Full Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None, None

Hydropower has provided clean, affordable, reliable, and renewable electricity in the United States for more than a century. Building on hydropower’s historical significance, and to inform the continued technical evolution, energy market value, and environmental performance of the industry, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office has led a first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis focused on a set of potential pathways for the environmentally sustainable expansion of hydropower (hydropower generation and pumped storage) in the United States.

Scale effect and value criterion of the permeability of the interlayer staggered zones in the basalt of Jinsha River basin, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Zhifang; Lin, Mu; Guo, Qiaona; Chen, Meng

2018-05-01

The hydrogeological characteristics of structural planes are different to those of the associated bedrock. The permeability, and therefore hydraulic conductivity (K), of a structural plane can be significantly different at different scales. The interlayer staggered zones in the Emeishan Basalt of early Late Permian were studied; this formation is located in the Baihetan hydropower project area in Jinsha River Basin, China. The seepage flow distribution of a solid model and two generalized models (A and B) were computed using COMSOL. The K values of the interlayer staggered zones for all three models were calculated by both simulation and analytical methods. The results show that the calculated K results of the generalized models can reflect the variation trend of permeability in each section of the solid model, and the approximate analytical calculation of K can be taken into account in the calculation of K in the generalized models instead of that found by simulation. Further studies are needed to investigate permeability variation in the interlayer staggered zones under the condition of different scales, considering the scaling variation in each section of an interlayer staggered zone. The permeability of each section of an interlayer staggered zone presents a certain degree of dispersivity at small scales; however, the permeability values tends to converge to a similar value as the scale of each section increases. The regularity of each section of the interlayer staggered zones under the condition of different scales can provide a scientific basis for reasonable selection of different engineering options.

Operation ranges and dynamic capabilities of variable-speed pumped-storage hydropower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mercier, Thomas; Olivier, Mathieu; Dejaeger, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

The development of renewable and intermittent power generation creates incentives for the development of both energy storage solutions and more flexible power generation assets. Pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) is the most established and mature energy storage technology, but recent developments in power electronics have created a renewed interest by providing PSH units with a variable-speed feature, thereby increasing their flexibility. This paper reviews technical considerations related to variable-speed PSH in link with the provision of primary frequency control, also referred to as frequency containment reserves (FCRs). Based on the detailed characteristics of a scale model pump-turbine, the variable-speed operation ranges in pump and turbine modes are precisely assessed and the implications for the provision of FCRs are highlighted. Modelling and control for power system studies are discussed, both for fixed- and variable-speed machines and simulation results are provided to illustrate the high dynamic capabilities of variable-speed PSH.

A synthesis of environmental and recreational mitigation requirements at hydropower projects in the United States

DOE PAGES

Schramm, Michael P.; Bevelhimer, Mark S.; DeRolph, Chris R.

2016-04-11

Environmental mitigation plays an important role in the environmentally sustainable development of hydropower resources. However, comprehensive data on mitigation required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) at United States (US) hydropower projects is lacking. Therefore, our objective was to create a comprehensive database of mitigation required at non-federal hydropower projects and provide a synthesis of available mitigation data. Mitigation data was collated for over 300 plants licensed or relicensed from 1998 through 2013. We observed that the majority of FERC mitigation requirements deal with either hydrologic flows or recreation and that hydropower plants in the Pacific Northwest had themore » highest number of requirements. Our data indicate opportunities exist to further explore hydropower mitigation in the areas of environmental flows, fish passage, and water quality. Lastly, connecting these data with ecological outcomes, actual flow data, and larger landscape level information will be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation and ultimately inform regulators, managers, and planners.« less

A synthesis of environmental and recreational mitigation requirements at hydropower projects in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schramm, Michael P.; Bevelhimer, Mark S.; DeRolph, Chris R.

Environmental mitigation plays an important role in the environmentally sustainable development of hydropower resources. However, comprehensive data on mitigation required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) at United States (US) hydropower projects is lacking. Therefore, our objective was to create a comprehensive database of mitigation required at non-federal hydropower projects and provide a synthesis of available mitigation data. Mitigation data was collated for over 300 plants licensed or relicensed from 1998 through 2013. We observed that the majority of FERC mitigation requirements deal with either hydrologic flows or recreation and that hydropower plants in the Pacific Northwest had themore » highest number of requirements. Our data indicate opportunities exist to further explore hydropower mitigation in the areas of environmental flows, fish passage, and water quality. Lastly, connecting these data with ecological outcomes, actual flow data, and larger landscape level information will be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation and ultimately inform regulators, managers, and planners.« less

78 FR 71601 - KC Small Hydro LLC; Advanced Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-29

... total capacity of 1,700 kilowatts (kW), installed within the existing intake tower; (2) an electrical control booth constructed on top of the intake tower; and (3) a 700- foot-long, 13.2 kilo-Volt (kV...; (3) a powerhouse containing two generating units with a total capacity of 3,320 kW; (4) the existing...

Out, out, dam spot! The geomorphic response of rivers to dam removal.

Treesearch

Jonathan Thompson

2005-01-01

About 75,000 irrigation, flood control, and hydropower dams in the United States are aging, deteriorating, or have outlived their useful lives and purposes. Not surprisingly, dam removal is emerging as both a challenge and opportunity for river management and research. Scientists at the PNW Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon, are using scale models and monitoring...

Analysis of Power Planning Deviation Influence on the Non-fossil Energy Development Goal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Wei-ting; Li, Ting; Ye, Qiang; Mi, Zhu; Ying, Liu; Tao, Yu-xuan

2017-05-01

Due to the international circumstances changes and domestic economic restructuring, the policies and planning of energy development have been adjusting in recent years, especially in energy power industry. Under these influences, the Chinese energy development goal “non-fossil energy accounts for 15% of the primary energy consumption” which planned to be realized in 2020 becomes uncertain. To ensure the goal can be achieved, a new energy power planning scheme is provided. Based on this planning scheme, the sensitivity analysis method and the maximum deviation method are proposed to quantify the influence of planning deviation on the target percentage. At the same time, the energy replacement is provided to fill the deviation. Research results shows that the main influence factors of target percentage is the hydro and nuclear power develop scale and their output channel construction. If the hydro and nuclear power capacity can’t reach their target scale, wind and solar power capacity can fill the vacancy instead. But if the vacancy of hydropower exceeds 58GW, or vacancy of nuclear power exceeds 27GW, the “15% goal” would be very difficult to achieve. Accelerating the construction of the hydropower output transmission lines helps to guarantee the "15% goal".

Methane Ebullition in Temperate Hydropower Reservoirs and Implications for US Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

PubMed

Miller, Benjamin L; Arntzen, Evan V; Goldman, Amy E; Richmond, Marshall C

2017-10-01

The United States is home to 2198 dams actively used for hydropower production. With the December 2015 consensus adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement, it is important to accurately quantify anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Methane ebullition, or methane bubbles originating from river or lake sediments, has been shown to account for nearly all methane emissions from tropical hydropower reservoirs to the atmosphere. However, distinct ebullitive methane fluxes have been studied in comparatively few temperate hydropower reservoirs globally. This study measures ebullitive and diffusive methane fluxes from two eastern Washington reservoirs, and synthesizes existing studies of methane ebullition in temperate, boreal, and tropical hydropower reservoirs. Ebullition comprises nearly all methane emissions (>97%) from this study's two eastern Washington hydropower reservoirs to the atmosphere. Summer methane ebullition from these reservoirs was higher than ebullition in six southeastern U.S. hydropower reservoirs, however it was similar to temperate reservoirs in other parts of the world. Our literature synthesis suggests that methane ebullition from temperate hydropower reservoirs can be seasonally elevated compared to tropical climates, however annual emissions are likely to be higher within tropical climates, emphasizing the possible range of methane ebullition fluxes and the need for the further study of temperate reservoirs. Possible future changes to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and UNFCCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories highlights the need for accurate assessment of reservoir emissions.

Methane Ebullition in Temperate Hydropower Reservoirs and Implications for US Policy on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Benjamin L.; Arntzen, Evan V.; Goldman, Amy E.; Richmond, Marshall C.

2017-10-01

The United States is home to 2198 dams actively used for hydropower production. With the December 2015 consensus adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement, it is important to accurately quantify anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Methane ebullition, or methane bubbles originating from river or lake sediments, has been shown to account for nearly all methane emissions from tropical hydropower reservoirs to the atmosphere. However, distinct ebullitive methane fluxes have been studied in comparatively few temperate hydropower reservoirs globally. This study measures ebullitive and diffusive methane fluxes from two eastern Washington reservoirs, and synthesizes existing studies of methane ebullition in temperate, boreal, and tropical hydropower reservoirs. Ebullition comprises nearly all methane emissions (>97%) from this study's two eastern Washington hydropower reservoirs to the atmosphere. Summer methane ebullition from these reservoirs was higher than ebullition in six southeastern U.S. hydropower reservoirs, however it was similar to temperate reservoirs in other parts of the world. Our literature synthesis suggests that methane ebullition from temperate hydropower reservoirs can be seasonally elevated compared to tropical climates, however annual emissions are likely to be higher within tropical climates, emphasizing the possible range of methane ebullition fluxes and the need for the further study of temperate reservoirs. Possible future changes to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and UNFCCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories highlights the need for accurate assessment of reservoir emissions.

75 FR 8320 - Coastal Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-24

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13618-000] Coastal Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications February 18, 2010. On November 5, 2009, Coastal Hydropower...

Development of Sustainability Assessment Tool for Malaysian hydropower industry: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turan, Faiz Mohd; Johan, Kartina; Abu Sofian, Muhammad Irfan

2018-04-01

This research deals with the development of sustainability assessment tools as a medium to assess the performance of a hydropower project compliances towards sustainability practice. Since the increasing needs of implementing sustainability practice, developed countries are utilizing sustainability tools to achieve sustainable development goals. Its inception within ASEAN countries including Malaysia is still low. The problem with most tools developed from other countries is that it is not very comprehensive as well as its implementation factors are not suitable for the local environment that is not quantified. Hence, there is a need to develop a suitable sustainable assessment tool for the Malaysian hydropower industry to comply with the sustainable development goals as a bridging gap between the governor and the practitioner. The steps of achieving this goal is separated into several parts. The first part is to identify sustainable parameters from established tools as a model for comparison to enhance new parameters. The second stage is to convert equivalent quantification value from the model to the new developed tools. The last stage is to develop software program as a mean of gaining energy company feedback with systematic sustainable reporting from the surveyor so as to be able to integrate sustainability assessment, monitoring and reporting for self-improved reporting.

Rock Mass Behavior Under Hydropower Embankment Dams: A Two-Dimensional Numerical Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bondarchuk, A.; Ask, M. V. S.; Dahlström, L.-O.; Nordlund, E.

2012-09-01

Sweden has more than 190 large hydropower dams, of which about 50 are pure embankment dams and over 100 are concrete/embankment dams. This paper presents results from conceptual analyses of the response of typical Swedish rock mass to the construction of a hydropower embankment dam and its first stages of operation. The aim is to identify locations and magnitudes of displacements that are occurring in the rock foundation and grout curtain after construction of the dam, the first filling of its water reservoir, and after one seasonal variation of the water table. Coupled hydro-mechanical analysis was conducted using the two-dimensional distinct element program UDEC. Series of the simulations have been performed and the results show that the first filling of the reservoir and variation of water table induce largest magnitudes of displacement, with the greatest values obtained from the two models with high differential horizontal stresses and smallest spacing of sub-vertical fractures. These results may help identifying the condition of the dam foundation and contribute to the development of proper maintenance measures, which guarantee the safety and functionality of the dam. Additionally, newly developed dams may use these results for the estimation of the possible response of the rock foundation to the construction.

Voluntary Green Power Procurement | Energy Analysis | NREL

Science.gov Websites

state renewable portfolio standards (RPSs). Pie chart depicting the voluntary market share of non -hydropower renewable generation. And, chart depicting the voluntary market share of non-hydropower renewable generation over time, from 2006 to 2015. Voluntary market share of U.S. non-hydropower renewable generation

Assessing Hydropower in the West

DOE PAGES

Johnson, Megan M.; Uria Martinez, Rocio

2015-06-01

On April 27, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the 2014 Hydropower Market Report, which provides a quantitative baseline on the distribution, capabilities, and status of hydropower in the United States. Although the report shows many interesting trends and figures, this article focuses on those related to the western region.

76 FR 6459 - Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-04

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13954-000] Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments... Hydropower, LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power...

77 FR 52016 - Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-28

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. ER12-2447-001] Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower LLC; Supplemental Notice That Initial Market-Based Rate Filing Includes... proceeding, of Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower LLC's application for market- based rate authority, with...

76 FR 7838 - Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-11

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13953-000] Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments... Hydropower, LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power...

Hydropower resources at risk: The status of hydropower regulation and development - 1997

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hunt, R.T.; Hunt, J.A.

This report documents today`s hydropower licensing and development status based on published data as follows: (a) Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) databases, maintained by FERC`s Office of Hydropower Licensing, of: (1) operating FERC-regulated projects, federal projects, and known unlicensed projects; (2) surrendered licenses; and, (3) recent licensing and relicensing actions; (b) Energy Information Administration (EIA) data on installed capacity and generation from 1949 through 1995 for the various resources used to produce electricity in the U.S.; and, (c) FERC licensing orders, and environmental assessments or environmental impact statements for each individual project relicensed since 1980. The analysis conducted to preparemore » this paper includes the effects of all FERC hydropower licensing actions since 1980, and applies those findings to estimate the costs of hydropower licensing and development activity for the next 15 years. It also quantifies the national cost of hydropower regulation. The future estimates are quite conservative. The are presented in 1996 dollars without speculating on the effects of future inflation, license surrenders, conditions imposed through open-ended license articles, license terms greater than 30 years, or low water years. Instead, they show the most directly predictable influences on licensing outcomes using actual experiences since ECPA (after 1986).« less

Run-of-river power plants in Alpine regions: whither optimal capacity?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lazzaro, Gianluca; Botter, Gianluca

2015-04-01

Hydropower is the major renewable electricity generation technology worldwide. The future expansion of this technology mostly relies on the development of small run-of-river projects, in which a fraction of the running flows is diverted from the river to a turbine for energy production. Even though small hydro inflicts a smaller impact on aquatic ecosystems and local communities compared to large dams, it cannot prevent stresses on plant, animal, and human well-being. This is especially true in mountain regions where the plant outflow is located several kilometers downstream of the intake, thereby inducing the depletion of river reaches of considerable length. Moreover, the negative cumulative effects of run-of-river systems operating along the same river threaten the ability of stream networks to supply ecological corridors for plants, invertebrates or fishes, and support biodiversity. Research in this area is severely lacking. Therefore, the prediction of the long-term impacts associated to the expansion of run-of-river projects induced by global-scale incentive policies remains highly uncertain. This contribution aims at providing objective tools to address the preliminary choice of the capacity of a run-of-river hydropower plant when the economic value of the plant and the alteration of the flow regime are simultaneously accounted for. This is done using the concepts of Pareto-optimality and Pareto-dominance, which are powerful tools suited to face multi-objective optimization in presence of conflicting goals, such as the maximization of the profitability and the minimization of the hydrologic disturbance induced by the plant in the river reach between the intake and the outflow. The application to a set of case studies belonging to the Piave River basin (Italy) suggests that optimal solutions are strongly dependent the natural flow regime at the plant intake. While in some cases (namely, reduced streamflow variability) the optimal trade-off between economic profitability and hydrologic disturbance is well identified, in other cases (enhanced streamflow variability) multiple options and/or ranges of optimal capacities may be devised. Such alternatives offer to water managers an objective basis to identify optimal allocation of resources and policy actions. Small hydro technology is likely to gain a higher social value in the next decades if the environmental and hydrologic footprint associated to the energetic exploitation of surface water will take a higher priority in civil infrastructures planning.

76 FR 49764 - Information Collection Request Extension Submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-11

... its APD to properly perform its function of marketing a limited amount of Federal hydropower. Western... the Federal reclamation program.\\4\\ The basic principle of the Reclamation Act of 1902 was the United... the power marketing functions from the Department of the Interior to Western.\\10\\ Pursuant to this...

Guidelines for Management Consulting Programs for Small-Scale Enterprise. Appropriate Technologies for Development. Manual M-14.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, Gary L.

This manual is designed to assist management consultants in working with small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries. Addressed in an overview of the small-scale enterprise (SSE) are: the role of the SSE in third world development, problems of SSEs, and target firms. The second chapter deals with various forms of management assistance to…

75 FR 57758 - Antrim Treatment Trust; Notice of Declaration of Intention and Soliciting Comments, Protests, and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-22

...: Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project. f. Location: The proposed Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project will be..., protests, and/or motions filed. k. Description of Project: The proposed Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project... and the project will not be connected to an interstate grid. When a Declaration of Intention is filed...

77 FR 31348 - Boott Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Consulting Parties and Agenda for Section 106 Consultation Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-25

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 2790-055] Boott Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Consulting Parties and Agenda for Section 106 Consultation Meeting On May 4, 2012, the... Hydropower, Inc. and the Eldred L. Field Hydroelectric Facility Trust (co-licensees for the Lowell...

76 FR 66710 - Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing, Soliciting Comments...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-27

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 5984-063] Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing, Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and....: 5984-063. c. Date Filed: May 10, 2011. d. Applicant: Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P. (dba Brookfield...

75 FR 8320 - Coastal Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-24

... Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications February 18, 2010. On November 5, 2009, Coastal Hydropower LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act...

78 FR 69080 - Houtama Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-18

... Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications On August 14, 2013, Houtama Hydropower LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act (FPA), proposing to...

78 FR 58535 - Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013; Supplemental Notice of Workshop

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-24

... license for hydropower development at non-powered dams and closed-loop pumped storage projects in... for licensing hydropower development at non-powered dams and closed-loop pumped storage projects... closed- loop pumped storage) affect the steps included in a two-year process? 3.9 Should there be a...

Hydropower reservoirs: cytotoxic and genotoxic assessment using the Allium cepa root model.

PubMed

Rambo, Cassiano Lazarotto; Zanotelli, Patrícia; Dalegrave, Daniela; De Nez, Dinara; Szczepanik, Jozimar; Carazek, Fábio; Franscescon, Francini; Rosemberg, Denis Broock; Siebel, Anna Maria; Magro, Jacir Dal

2017-03-01

Hydropower offers a reliable source of electricity in several countries, and Brazil supplies its energy needs almost entirely through hydropower plants. Nevertheless, hydropower plants comprise large buildings and water reservoirs and dams, resulting in huge ecological disruptions. Here, we analyzed the impact of four hydropower reservoirs construction in metals and pesticides incidence and the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of sediment elutriate of rivers from southern Brazil. Our analyses have evidenced the elevated incidence of different metals (lead, iron, cadmium, and chrome) and pesticides (methyl parathion, atrazine, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). We showed that Allium cepa exposed to sediment elutriates did not change the seed germination rate and mitotic index. However, roots from Allium cepa exposed to reservoirs sediment elutriates showed increased occurrence of chromosomal aberrations and nuclear abnormalities. Therefore, the results obtained in our study indicate that sediment from reservoirs present elevated concentration of metals and pesticides and a significant genotoxic potential. Taken together, our data support that hydropower reservoirs represent an environmental scenario that could impact surrounding wildlife and population.

NAWIG News: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Native American Wind Interest Group, Fall 2008, Wind & Hydropower Technologies Program (Brochure)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2008-09-01

As part of its Native American outreach, DOE?s Wind Powering America program produces a newsletter to present Native American wind information, including projects, interviews with pioneers, issues, WPA activities, and related events. This issue features an interview with Dave Danz, a tribal planner for the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa in northeastern Minnesota, and a feature on the new turbine that powers the KILI radio station on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Improving the ecohydrological and economic efficiency of Small Hydropower Plants with water diversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Razurel, Pierre; Gorla, Lorenzo; Tron, Stefania; Niayifar, Amin; Crouzy, Benoît; Perona, Paolo

2018-03-01

Water exploitation for energy production from Small Hydropower Plant (SHP) is increasing despite human pressure on freshwater already being very intense in several countries. Preserving natural rivers thus requires deeper understanding of the global (i.e., ecological and economic) efficiency of flow-diversion practice. In this work, we show that the global efficiency of SHP river intakes can be improved by non-proportional flow-redistribution policies. This innovative dynamic water allocation defines the fraction of water released to the river as a nonlinear function of river runoff. Three swiss SHP case studies are considered to systematically test the global performance of such policies, under both present and future hydroclimatic regimes. The environmental efficiency is plotted versus the economic efficiency showing that efficient solutions align along a (Pareto) frontier, which is entirely formed by non-proportional policies. On the contrary, other commonly used distribution policies generally lie below the Pareto frontier. This confirms the existence of better policies based on non-proportional redistribution, which should be considered in relation to implementation and operational costs. Our results recommend abandoning static (e.g., constant-minimal-flow) policies in favour of non-proportional dynamic ones towards a more sustainable use of the water resource, also considering changing hydroclimatic scenarios.

Small Hydropower Plants in Pomerania: The Example of Evolution of Modern Industrial Brick Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macikowski, Bartosz

2017-10-01

Modernism is usually recognized and associated with the aesthetics of the International Style, represented by white-plastered, horizontally articulated architecture with skimpy decoration, where function was the main imperative of the architects’ ambitions. In Northern Europe though, Modernism also revealed its brick face, representing different manners, styles, and appearances. The brick face of Modernism reflected, in fact, the complexity of the modern change, breaking ties with the historic styles of the 19th century and being still present in the beginning of the 20th century. Regardless of the cosmopolitan character of the International Style and its unified aesthetics, architects tried to find and keep shades of individuality. This was especially visible in the references to either regional or even local traditions. This diversity of modernistic architecture is intensified by its different functions. The language of industrial architecture derives its forms directly from its nature of pure functional idiom, devoted to economic and functional optimization. The industrial form usually seems subordinate to the technical nature of objects. But regardless of that, in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century we can observe an interesting evolution of styles and tendencies in industrial architecture, even in such a narrow and specific field like the architecture of small hydropower plants. The purpose of the research was to recognize the evolution of the architectural form of hydropower plants as a developing branch of industry in the first half of the 20th century. In Pomerania, during this period, a dynamic growth of investments took place, which concerned the use of the Pomeranian rivers’ potential to produce electric energy. At the end of the 19th century, electricity had a strong meaning as a symbol of a radical civilizational change, which influenced also the aesthetic aspects of architecture. This could suggest that the architecture of hydropower plants should be one of the carriers of the new progressive architecture. In fact, in the case of the Pomeranian hydropower plants, their technical solutions were among the most advanced and progressive solutions of those times, sometimes even experimental, adjusted to the diversity of local geographical conditions. Regardless of that, the architecture of the Pomeranian power plants was rather reflecting the diversity and dynamism of the aesthetic discourse of the time (sometimes even representing and adopting traditional or historical forms). The cascade of the power plants Podgaje (1928), Jastrowie (1930), and Ptusza (1930), all part of the same investment on the river Gwda, can be the example of the absorption and development of new aesthetic trends within the same stream of clinker architecture. The paper describes selected examples of Pomeranian power plants as a comparative study which could illustrate the evolution of the brick architecture of the beginning of the 20th century.

Minimizing water consumption when producing hydropower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leon, A. S.

2015-12-01

In 2007, hydropower accounted for only 16% of the world electricity production, with other renewable sources totaling 3%. Thus, it is not surprising that when alternatives are evaluated for new energy developments, there is strong impulse for fossil fuel or nuclear energy as opposed to renewable sources. However, as hydropower schemes are often part of a multipurpose water resources development project, they can often help to finance other components of the project. In addition, hydropower systems and their associated dams and reservoirs provide human well-being benefits, such as flood control and irrigation, and societal benefits such as increased recreational activities and improved navigation. Furthermore, hydropower due to its associated reservoir storage, can provide flexibility and reliability for energy production in integrated energy systems. The storage capability of hydropower systems act as a regulating mechanism by which other intermittent and variable renewable energy sources (wind, wave, solar) can play a larger role in providing electricity of commercial quality. Minimizing water consumption for producing hydropower is critical given that overuse of water for energy production may result in a shortage of water for other purposes such as irrigation, navigation or fish passage. This paper presents a dimensional analysis for finding optimal flow discharge and optimal penstock diameter when designing impulse and reaction water turbines for hydropower systems. The objective of this analysis is to provide general insights for minimizing water consumption when producing hydropower. This analysis is based on the geometric and hydraulic characteristics of the penstock, the total hydraulic head and the desired power production. As part of this analysis, various dimensionless relationships between power production, flow discharge and head losses were derived. These relationships were used to withdraw general insights on determining optimal flow discharge and optimal penstock diameter. For instance, it was found that for minimizing water consumption, the ratio of head loss to gross head should not exceed about 15%. Two examples of application are presented to illustrate the procedure for determining optimal flow discharge and optimal penstock diameter for impulse and reaction turbines.

Valuing the effects of hydropower development on watershed ecosystem services: Case studies in the Jiulong River Watershed, Fujian Province, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Guihua; Fang, Qinhua; Zhang, Luoping; Chen, Weiqi; Chen, Zhenming; Hong, Huasheng

2010-02-01

Hydropower development brings many negative impacts on watershed ecosystems which are not fully integrated into current decision-making largely because in practice few accept the cost and benefit beyond market. In this paper, a framework was proposed to valuate the effects on watershed ecosystem services caused by hydropower development. Watershed ecosystem services were classified into four categories of provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services; then effects on watershed ecosystem services caused by hydropower development were identified to 21 indicators. Thereafter various evaluation techniques including the market value method, opportunity cost approach, project restoration method, travel cost method, and contingent valuation method were determined and the models were developed to valuate these indicators reflecting specific watershed ecosystem services. This approach was applied to three representative hydropower projects (Daguan, Xizaikou and Tiangong) of Jiulong River Watershed in southeast China. It was concluded that for hydropower development: (1) the value ratio of negative impacts to positive benefits ranges from 64.09% to 91.18%, indicating that the negative impacts of hydropower development should be critically studied during its environmental administration process; (2) the biodiversity loss and water quality degradation (together accounting for 80-94%) are the major negative impacts on watershed ecosystem services; (3) the average environmental cost per unit of electricity is up to 0.206 Yuan/kW h, which is about three quarters of its on-grid power tariff; and (4) the current water resource fee accounts for only about 4% of its negative impacts value, therefore a new compensatory method by paying for ecosystem services is necessary for sustainable hydropower development. These findings provide a clear picture of both positive and negative effects of hydropower development for decision-makers in the monetary term, and also provide a basis for further design of environmental instrument such as payment for watershed ecosystem services.

Investigating the Impact of Climate Change on Hydroelectric Generation and Ancillary Services in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forrest, K.; Tarroja, B.; AghaKouchak, A.; Chiang, F.; Samuelsen, S.

2017-12-01

Spatial and temporal shifts in hydrological regimes predicted under climate change conditions have implications for the management of reservoirs and hydropower contributions to generation and ancillary services. California relies on large hydropower plants to provide flexible electricity generation, which will be increasingly important for supporting renewable resources. This study examines the impact of climate change on large hydropower generation in California. Four climate models for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 are utilized to evaluate the impact of the climate change conditions on (1) the magnitude and profile of hydropower generation and (2) the ability of hydropower to provide spinning reserve. Under both RCP scenarios, impacts are regionally dependent, with precipitation projected to increase in northern California and decrease in southern California for the ten-year period investigated (2046-2055). The overall result is a net increase in inflow into large hydropower units as a majority of the hydropower plants studied are located in the northern part of the state. Increased inflow is primarily driven by increased runoff during the winter and does not necessarily result in increased generation, as extreme events yield greater overall spillage, up to 45% of total inflow. Increased winter hydropower generation paired with increased reservoir constraints in summer result in an 11 to 18% decrease in spinning reserve potential across the year. Under high inflow conditions there is a decreased flexibility for choosing generation versus spinning reserve as water needs to be released, regardless. During summer, hydropower units providing spinning reserve experienced decreased inflow and lower reservoir levels compared to the historical baseline, resulting in decreased spinning reserve bidding potential. Decreased bidding, especially during summer periods at peak electricity demand, can result in greater demand for other dispatchable resources, such as natural gas turbines or emerging energy storage technologies, which has implications for electricity costs and overall grid emissions.

CHARACTERIZATION OF SMALL ESTUARIES AS A COMPONENT OF A REGIONAL-SCALE MONITORING PROGRAM

EPA Science Inventory

Large-scale environmental monitoring programs, such as EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), by nature focus on estimating the ecological condition of large geographic areas. Generally missing is the ability to provide estimates of condition of individual ...

Assessing the Ecological and Socio-Economic Impacts of Extensive Small Hydropower Development in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jumani, S.

2016-12-01

The growth of small hydro-power projects (SHPs) is being widely encouraged as they are believed to be environmentally sustainable and socially equitable sources of energy. Easy policies, carbon credits and government sponsored monetary incentives have led to the mushrooming of SHPs along most tropical rivers, especially in developing countries. Our field study conducted between December, 2013 and September, 2014 assessed the social and ecological impacts of a cluster of SHPs in the biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats in India. Ecological impacts were studied with respect to freshwater fish assemblages, river water parameters, forest fragmentation and spread of invasive species. Social surveys were conducted to understand impacts on SHPs on socio-economic activities, resource access and human-animal conflict. Ecological impacts were found to be substantial. Freshwater fish species richness was significantly higher in un-dammed sites, and this variation in richness was explained by dam-related variables. Within dammed streams, spatial sections that were particularly damaging were identified. Fish species and guilds that were particularly susceptible to be adversely impacted were identified as indicator species. Four SHPs having a cumulative capacity of 45MW led to a direct loss of 14.5ha of forest land. Resultant loss in canopy cover and spread of invasive plant species was quantified. More than 10% of the river stretch was left de-watered due to the dams. Socially, SHPs were not as beneficial as they are believed to be. Respondents claimed that human-elephant conflict began only after SHP construction began. This relationship was examined with secondary data, and found to be true. In light of our findings, we suggest that the policy regarding SHPs be revised. Given that 6474 sites have been identified for SHP development in India, all without any individual or cumulative impact assessments or public consultations, studies to understand their impacts at the landscape level are underway. We have mapped all existing and planned SHPs within the Western Ghats of Karnataka. Forest fragmentation and river fragmentation indices are being calculated at various spatial scales to provide a holistic perspective of SHP development in an attempt to influence the development of better policies.

Development and Implementation of an Optimization Model for Hydropower and Total Dissolved Gas in the Mid-Columbia River System

DOE PAGES

Witt, Adam; Magee, Timothy; Stewart, Kevin; ...

2017-08-10

Managing energy, water, and environmental priorities and constraints within a cascade hydropower system is a challenging multiobjective optimization effort that requires advanced modeling and forecasting tools. Within the mid-Columbia River system, there is currently a lack of specific solutions for predicting how coordinated operational decisions can mitigate the impacts of total dissolved gas (TDG) supersaturation while satisfying multiple additional policy and hydropower generation objectives. In this study, a reduced-order TDG uptake equation is developed that predicts tailrace TDG at seven hydropower facilities on the mid-Columbia River. The equation is incorporated into a general multiobjective river, reservoir, and hydropower optimization toolmore » as a prioritized operating goal within a broader set of system-level objectives and constraints. A test case is presented to assess the response of TDG and hydropower generation when TDG supersaturation is optimized to remain under state water-quality standards. Satisfaction of TDG as an operating goal is highly dependent on whether constraints that limit TDG uptake are implemented at a higher priority than generation requests. According to the model, an opportunity exists to reduce TDG supersaturation and meet hydropower generation requirements by shifting spillway flows to different time periods. In conclusion, a coordinated effort between all project owners is required to implement systemwide optimized solutions that satisfy the operating policies of all stakeholders.« less

Development and Implementation of an Optimization Model for Hydropower and Total Dissolved Gas in the Mid-Columbia River System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Witt, Adam; Magee, Timothy; Stewart, Kevin

Managing energy, water, and environmental priorities and constraints within a cascade hydropower system is a challenging multiobjective optimization effort that requires advanced modeling and forecasting tools. Within the mid-Columbia River system, there is currently a lack of specific solutions for predicting how coordinated operational decisions can mitigate the impacts of total dissolved gas (TDG) supersaturation while satisfying multiple additional policy and hydropower generation objectives. In this study, a reduced-order TDG uptake equation is developed that predicts tailrace TDG at seven hydropower facilities on the mid-Columbia River. The equation is incorporated into a general multiobjective river, reservoir, and hydropower optimization toolmore » as a prioritized operating goal within a broader set of system-level objectives and constraints. A test case is presented to assess the response of TDG and hydropower generation when TDG supersaturation is optimized to remain under state water-quality standards. Satisfaction of TDG as an operating goal is highly dependent on whether constraints that limit TDG uptake are implemented at a higher priority than generation requests. According to the model, an opportunity exists to reduce TDG supersaturation and meet hydropower generation requirements by shifting spillway flows to different time periods. In conclusion, a coordinated effort between all project owners is required to implement systemwide optimized solutions that satisfy the operating policies of all stakeholders.« less

Global Potential for Hydro-generated Electricity and Climate Change Impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Y.; Hejazi, M. I.; Leon, C.; Calvin, K. V.; Thomson, A. M.; Li, H. Y.

2014-12-01

Hydropower is a dominant renewable energy source at the global level, accounting for more than 15% of the world's total power supply. It is also very vulnerable to climate change. Improved understanding of climate change impact on hydropower can help develop adaptation measures to increase the resilience of energy system. In this study, we developed a comprehensive estimate of global hydropower potential using runoff and stream flow data derived from a global hydrologic model with a river routing sub-model, along with turbine technology performance, cost assumptions, and environmental consideration (Figure 1). We find that hydropower has the potential to supply a significant portion of the world energy needs, although this potential varies substantially by regions. Resources in a number of countries exceed by multiple folds the total current demand for electricity, e.g., Russia and Indonesia. A sensitivity analysis indicates that hydropower potential can be highly sensitive to a number of parameters including designed flow for capacity, cost and financing, turbine efficiency, and stream flow. The climate change impact on hydropower potential was evaluated by using runoff outputs from 4 climate models (HadCM3, PCM, CGCM2, and CSIRO2). It was found that the climate change on hydropower shows large variation not only by regions, but also climate models, and this demonstrates the importance of incorporating climate change into infrastructure-planning at the regional level though the existing uncertainties.

75 FR 37788 - Antrim Treatment Trust; Notice of Declaration of Intention and Soliciting Comments, Protests, and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-30

... Micro-Hydropower Project. f. Location: The proposed Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project will be located on... motions filed. k. Description of Project: The proposed Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project will consist of: (1...-feet to the treatment plant, where it will be connected to the interstate grid; and (6) appurtenant...

The role of hydropower in electric power integration of Asian countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belyaev, Lev; Savelyev, Vladimir; Chudinova, Lyudmila

2018-01-01

The possible role of hydropower plants in formation and operation of interstate power pools is described based on the generalization of the world experience. Peculiarities of the influence of hydropower on development of interstate electric ties in this part of the world and potential effects are showed on the example of Central and Northeast Asia.

A Model of Small Capacity Power Plant in Tateli Village, North Sulawesi

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sangari, F. J.; Rompas, P. T. D.

2017-03-01

The electricity supply in North Sulawesi is still very limited so ubiquitous electric current outage. It makes rural communities have problems in life because most uses electrical energy. One of the solutions is a model of power plants to supply electricity in Tateli village, Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The objective of this research is to get the model that generate electrical energy for household needs through power plant that using a model of Picohydro with cross flow turbine in Tateli village. The method used the study of literature, survey the construction site of the power plant and the characteristics of the location being a place of research, analysis of hydropower ability and analyzing costs of power plant. The result showed that the design model of cross flow turbines used in pico-hydro hydropower installations is connected to a generator to produce electrical energy maximum of 3.29 kW for household needs. This analyze will be propose to local government of Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia to be followed.

A Multi-Year Plan for Research, Development, and Prototype Testing of Standard Modular Hydropower Technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smith, Brennan T.; Welch, Tim; Witt, Adam M.

The Multi-Year Plan for Research, Development, and Prototype Testing of Standard Modular Hydropower Technology (MYRP) presents a strategy for specifying, designing, testing, and demonstrating the efficacy of standard modular hydropower (SMH) as an environmentally compatible and cost-optimized renewable electricity generation technology. The MYRP provides the context, background, and vision for testing the SMH hypothesis: if standardization, modularity, and preservation of stream functionality become essential and fully realized features of hydropower technology, project design, and regulatory processes, they will enable previously unrealized levels of new project development with increased acceptance, reduced costs, increased predictability of outcomes, and increased value to stakeholders.more » To achieve success in this effort, the MYRP outlines a framework of stakeholder-validated criteria, models, design tools, testing facilities, and assessment protocols that will facilitate the development of next-generation hydropower technologies.« less

Modelling a hydropower plant with reservoir with the micropower optimisation model (HOMER)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canales, Fausto A.; Beluco, Alexandre; Mendes, Carlos André B.

2017-08-01

Hydropower with water accumulation is an interesting option to consider in hybrid systems, because it helps dealing with the intermittence characteristics of renewable energy resources. The software HOMER (version Legacy) is extensively used in research works related to these systems, but it does not include a specific option for modelling hydro with reservoir. This paper describes a method for modelling a hydropower plant with reservoir with HOMER by adapting an existing procedure used for modelling pumped storage. An example with two scenarios in southern Brazil is presented for illustrating and validating the method explained in this paper. The results validate the method by showing a direct correspondence between an equivalent battery and the reservoir. The refill of the reservoir, its power output as a function of the flow rate and installed hydropower capacity are effectively simulated, indicating an adequate representation of a hydropower plant with reservoir is possible with HOMER.

Environmental sustainability assessment of hydropower plant in Europe using life cycle assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahmud, M. A. P.; Huda, N.; Farjana, S. H.; Lang, C.

2018-05-01

Hydropower is the oldest and most common type of renewable source of electricity available on this planet. The end of life process of hydropower plant have significant environmental impacts, which needs to be identified and minimized to ensure an environment friendly power generation. However, identifying the environmental impacts and health hazards are very little explored in the hydropower processing routes despite a significant quantity of production worldwide. This paper highlight the life-cycle environmental impact assessment of the reservoir based hydropower generation system located in alpine and non-alpine region of Europe, addressing their ecological effects by the ReCiPe and CML methods under several impact-assessment categories such as human health, ecosystems, global warming potential, acidification potential, etc. The Australasian life-cycle inventory database and SimaPro software are utilized to accumulate life-cycle inventory dataset and to evaluate the impacts. The results reveal that plants of alpine region offer superior environmental performance for couple of considered categories: global warming and photochemical oxidation, whilst in the other cases the outcomes are almost similar. Results obtained from this study will take part an important role in promoting sustainable generation of hydropower, and thus towards environment friendly energy production.

Joint optimization of regional water-power systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira-Cardenal, Silvio J.; Mo, Birger; Gjelsvik, Anders; Riegels, Niels D.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

2016-06-01

Energy and water resources systems are tightly coupled; energy is needed to deliver water and water is needed to extract or produce energy. Growing pressure on these resources has raised concerns about their long-term management and highlights the need to develop integrated solutions. A method for joint optimization of water and electric power systems was developed in order to identify methodologies to assess the broader interactions between water and energy systems. The proposed method is to include water users and power producers into an economic optimization problem that minimizes the cost of power production and maximizes the benefits of water allocation, subject to constraints from the power and hydrological systems. The method was tested on the Iberian Peninsula using simplified models of the seven major river basins and the power market. The optimization problem was successfully solved using stochastic dual dynamic programming. The results showed that current water allocation to hydropower producers in basins with high irrigation productivity, and to irrigation users in basins with high hydropower productivity was sub-optimal. Optimal allocation was achieved by managing reservoirs in very distinct ways, according to the local inflow, storage capacity, hydropower productivity, and irrigation demand and productivity. This highlights the importance of appropriately representing the water users' spatial distribution and marginal benefits and costs when allocating water resources optimally. The method can handle further spatial disaggregation and can be extended to include other aspects of the water-energy nexus.

DOE/PSU Graduate Student Fellowship Program for Hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cimbala, John M.

The primary objective of this project is to stimulate academic interest in the conventional hydropower field by supplying research support for at least eight individual Master of Science (MS) or Doctoral (PhD) level research projects, each consisting of a graduate student supervised by a faculty member. We have completed many of the individual student research projects: 2 PhD students have finished, and 4 are still working towards their PhD degree. 4 MS students have finished, and 2 are still working towards their MS degree, one of which is due to finish this April. In addition, 4 undergraduate student projects havemore » been completed, and one is to be completed this April. These projects were supervised by 7 faculty members and an Advisory/Review Panel. Our students and faculty have presented their work at national or international conferences and have submitted several journal publications. Three of our graduate students (Keith Martin, Dan Leonard and Hosein Foroutan) have received HRF Fellowships during the course of this project. All of the remaining students are anticipated to be graduated by the end of Fall Semester 2014. All of the tasks for this project will have been completed once all the students have been graduated, although it will be another year or two until all the journal publications have been finalized based on the work performed as part of this DOE Hydropower project.« less

Revisiting the 1993 historical extreme precipitation and damaging flood event in Central Nepal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marahatta, S.; Adhikari, L.; Pokharel, B.

2017-12-01

Nepal is ranked the fourth most climate-vulnerable country in the world and it is prone to different weather-related hazards including droughts, floods, and landslides [Wang et al., 2013; Gillies et al., 2013]. Although extremely vulnerable to extreme weather events, there are no extreme weather warning system established to inform public in Nepal. Nepal has witnessed frequent drought and flood events, however, the extreme precipitation that occurred on 19-20 July 1993 created a devastating flood and landslide making it the worst weather disaster in the history of Nepal. During the second week of July, Nepal and northern India experienced abnormal dry condition due to the shifting of the monsoon trough to central India. The dry weather changed to wet when monsoon trough moved northward towards foothills of the Himalayas. Around the same period, a low pressure center was located over the south-central Nepal. The surface low was supported by the mid-, upper-level shortwave and cyclonic vorticity. A meso-scale convective system created record breaking one day rainfall (540 mm) in the region. The torrential rain impacted the major hydropower reservoir, Bagmati barrage in Karmaiya and triggered many landslides and flash floods. The region had the largest hydropower (Kulekhani hydropower, 92 MW) of the country at that time and the storm event deposited extremely large amount of sediments that reduced one-fourth (4.8 million m3) of reservoir dead storage (12 million m3). The 1-in-1000 years flood damaged the newly constructed barrage and took more than 700 lives. Major highways were damaged cutting off supply of daily needed goods, including food and gas, in the capital city, Kathmandu, for more than a month. In this presentation, the meteorological conditions of the extreme event will be diagnosed and the impact of the sedimentation due to the flood on Kulekhani reservoir and hydropower generation will be discussed.

Dynamic hydrologic economic modeling of tradeoffs in hydroelectric systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kern, Jordan D.

Hydropower producers face a future beset by unprecedented changes in the electric power industry, including the rapid growth of installed wind power capacity and a vastly increased supply of natural gas due to horizontal hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"). There is also increased concern surrounding the potential for climate change to impact the magnitude and frequency of droughts. These developments may significantly alter the financial landscape for hydropower producers and have important ramifications for the environmental impacts of dams. Incorporating wind energy into electric power systems has the potential to affect price dynamics in electricity markets and, in so doing, alter the short-term financial signals on which dam operators rely to schedule reservoir releases. Chapter 1 of this doctoral dissertation develops an integrated reservoir-power system model for assessing the impact of large scale wind power integration of hydropower resources. Chapter 2 explores how efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of electric power systems by using wind energy to displace fossil fuel-based generation may inadvertently yield further impacts to river ecosystems by disrupting downstream flow patterns. Increased concern about the potential for climate change to alter the frequency and magnitude of droughts has led to growing interest in "index insurance" that compensates hydropower producers when values of an environmental variable (or index), such as reservoir inflows, crosses an agreed upon threshold (e.g., low flow conditions). Chapter 3 demonstrates the need for such index insurance contracts to also account for changes in natural gas prices in order to be cost-effective. Chapter 4 of this dissertation analyzes how recent low natural gas prices (partly attributable to fracking) have reduced the cost of implementing ramp rate restrictions at dams, which help restore sub-daily variability in river flows by limiting the flexibility of dam operators in scheduling reservoir releases concurrent with peak electricity demand.

The use of geoinformation technologies for renewable energy and regional aspects of developing renewable energy in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rafikova, Y. Y.; Kiseleva, S. V.; Nefedova, L. V.; Frid, S. E.

2014-12-01

The work presents the results of development of the geoinformation system "Renewable Energy Sources of Russia". Regional maps of installations and resources are presented. The problem of determination of small hydropower potential connected with the shortage of hydrological data is stated. Assessment of efficiency of techno-economic analysis of simulation-based autonomous solar lighting systems is described. Overview of regional experience, policies and targets is included.

Parametric distribution approach for flow availability in small hydro potential analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdullah, Samizee; Basri, Mohd Juhari Mat; Jamaluddin, Zahrul Zamri; Azrulhisham, Engku Ahmad; Othman, Jamel

2016-10-01

Small hydro system is one of the important sources of renewable energy and it has been recognized worldwide as clean energy sources. Small hydropower generation system uses the potential energy in flowing water to produce electricity is often questionable due to inconsistent and intermittent of power generated. Potential analysis of small hydro system which is mainly dependent on the availability of water requires the knowledge of water flow or stream flow distribution. This paper presented the possibility of applying Pearson system for stream flow availability distribution approximation in the small hydro system. By considering the stochastic nature of stream flow, the Pearson parametric distribution approximation was computed based on the significant characteristic of Pearson system applying direct correlation between the first four statistical moments of the distribution. The advantage of applying various statistical moments in small hydro potential analysis will have the ability to analyze the variation shapes of stream flow distribution.

Addressing biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from hydropower in LCA.

PubMed

Hertwich, Edgar G

2013-09-03

The ability of hydropower to contribute to climate change mitigation is sometimes questioned, citing emissions of methane and carbon dioxide resulting from the degradation of biogenic carbon in hydropower reservoirs. These emissions are, however, not always addressed in life cycle assessment, leading to a bias in technology comparisons, and often misunderstood. The objective of this paper is to review and analyze the generation of greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs for the purpose of technology assessment, relating established emission measurements to power generation. A literature review, data collection, and statistical analysis of methane and CO2 emissions are conducted. In a sample of 82 measurements, methane emissions per kWh hydropower generated are log-normally distributed, ranging from micrograms to 10s of kg. A multivariate regression analysis shows that the reservoir area per kWh electricity is the most important explanatory variable. Methane emissions flux per reservoir area are correlated with the natural net primary production of the area, the age of the power plant, and the inclusion of bubbling emissions in the measurement. Even together, these factors fail to explain most of the variation in the methane flux. The global average emissions from hydropower are estimated to be 85 gCO2/kWh and 3 gCH4/kWh, with a multiplicative uncertainty factor of 2. GHG emissions from hydropower can be largely avoided by ceasing to build hydropower plants with high land use per unit of electricity generated.

Economic interpretation of environmental flow regime downstream diverted river reaches.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorla, Lorenzo; Perona, Paolo

2013-04-01

Water demand for hydropower production is increasing together with the consciousness of the importance of riparian ecosystems and biodiversity. Some Cantons in Switzerland and other alpine regions in Austria and in Sud Tirol (Italy) started replacing the inadequate concept of Minimum Flow Requirement (MFR) with a dynamic one, by releasing a fix percentage of the total inflow (e.g. 25 %) to the environment. In the same direction Perona et al. (in revision) mathematically formulated a method particularly suitable for small hydropower plants, handling the environment as a non-traditional water use, which competes with exploitators. This model uses the Principle of Equal Marginal Utility (PEMU) as optimal water allocation rule for generating like-natural flow releases while maximizing the aggregate economic benefit of all uses (Gorla and Perona, in revision). In this paper we show how redistribution policies can be interpreted in terms of PEMU, particularly we focus at traditional water repartition rules, such as the MFR, but also to dynamic ones like proportional redistribution. For the first case we show both ecological and economical arguments suggesting its inappropriateness; in the second case we highlight explicit points of strength and weakness, and suggest ways of improvement. For example the flow release allocation rule can be changed from inflow-independent ones (e.g., proportional redistribution), to inflow-dependent ones (e.g., non-proportional). The latters, having fewer constraints, can generally lead to better both ecological and economical performances. A class of simple functions, based on the PEMU, is then proposed as a suitable solution in run-of-river or small hydropower plants. Each water repartition policy underlies an ecosystem monetization. We explicit the value of the ecosystem health underlying each policy by means of the PEMU under a few assumptions, and discuss how the theoretic efficient redistribution law obtained by our approach is feasible and doesn't imply high costs or advanced management tools. Our approach is a simple but effective step towards eco-sustainability in the growing market of mini hydropower plants, where operation rules like MFR are still widespread. As such, this method is a powerful instrument for political managers to explicit contradictions thus enlightening best compromise measures/decisions. References Perona, P., Characklis, G., Duerrenmatt, D.J., in revision. Inverse parameters estimation of simple riparian benefit economical models. Journal of Environmental Management . Gorla, L. and Perona, P., in revision. On quantifying ecologically sustainable flow releases in a diverted river reach. Journal of Hydrology.

Proliferation of Hydroelectric Dams in the Andean Amazon and Implications for Andes-Amazon Connectivity

PubMed Central

Finer, Matt; Jenkins, Clinton N.

2012-01-01

Due to rising energy demands and abundant untapped potential, hydropower projects are rapidly increasing in the Neotropics. This is especially true in the wet and rugged Andean Amazon, where regional governments are prioritizing new hydroelectric dams as the centerpiece of long-term energy plans. However, the current planning for hydropower lacks adequate regional and basin-scale assessment of potential ecological impacts. This lack of strategic planning is particularly problematic given the intimate link between the Andes and Amazonian flood plain, together one of the most species rich zones on Earth. We examined the potential ecological impacts, in terms of river connectivity and forest loss, of the planned proliferation of hydroelectric dams across all Andean tributaries of the Amazon River. Considering data on the full portfolios of existing and planned dams, along with data on roads and transmission line systems, we developed a new conceptual framework to estimate the relative impacts of all planned dams. There are plans for 151 new dams greater than 2 MW over the next 20 years, more than a 300% increase. These dams would include five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon. Our ecological impact analysis classified 47% of the potential new dams as high impact and just 19% as low impact. Sixty percent of the dams would cause the first major break in connectivity between protected Andean headwaters and the lowland Amazon. More than 80% would drive deforestation due to new roads, transmission lines, or inundation. We conclude with a discussion of three major policy implications of these findings. 1) There is a critical need for further strategic regional and basin scale evaluation of dams. 2) There is an urgent need for a strategic plan to maintain Andes-Amazon connectivity. 3) Reconsideration of hydropower as a low-impact energy source in the Neotropics. PMID:22529979

Proliferation of hydroelectric dams in the Andean Amazon and implications for Andes-Amazon connectivity.

PubMed

Finer, Matt; Jenkins, Clinton N

2012-01-01

Due to rising energy demands and abundant untapped potential, hydropower projects are rapidly increasing in the Neotropics. This is especially true in the wet and rugged Andean Amazon, where regional governments are prioritizing new hydroelectric dams as the centerpiece of long-term energy plans. However, the current planning for hydropower lacks adequate regional and basin-scale assessment of potential ecological impacts. This lack of strategic planning is particularly problematic given the intimate link between the Andes and Amazonian flood plain, together one of the most species rich zones on Earth. We examined the potential ecological impacts, in terms of river connectivity and forest loss, of the planned proliferation of hydroelectric dams across all Andean tributaries of the Amazon River. Considering data on the full portfolios of existing and planned dams, along with data on roads and transmission line systems, we developed a new conceptual framework to estimate the relative impacts of all planned dams. There are plans for 151 new dams greater than 2 MW over the next 20 years, more than a 300% increase. These dams would include five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon. Our ecological impact analysis classified 47% of the potential new dams as high impact and just 19% as low impact. Sixty percent of the dams would cause the first major break in connectivity between protected Andean headwaters and the lowland Amazon. More than 80% would drive deforestation due to new roads, transmission lines, or inundation. We conclude with a discussion of three major policy implications of these findings. 1) There is a critical need for further strategic regional and basin scale evaluation of dams. 2) There is an urgent need for a strategic plan to maintain Andes-Amazon connectivity. 3) Reconsideration of hydropower as a low-impact energy source in the Neotropics.

Exploring synergistic benefits of Water-Food-Energy Nexus through multi-objective reservoir optimization schemes.

PubMed

Uen, Tinn-Shuan; Chang, Fi-John; Zhou, Yanlai; Tsai, Wen-Ping

2018-08-15

This study proposed a holistic three-fold scheme that synergistically optimizes the benefits of the Water-Food-Energy (WFE) Nexus by integrating the short/long-term joint operation of a multi-objective reservoir with irrigation ponds in response to urbanization. The three-fold scheme was implemented step by step: (1) optimizing short-term (daily scale) reservoir operation for maximizing hydropower output and final reservoir storage during typhoon seasons; (2) simulating long-term (ten-day scale) water shortage rates in consideration of the availability of irrigation ponds for both agricultural and public sectors during non-typhoon seasons; and (3) promoting the synergistic benefits of the WFE Nexus in a year-round perspective by integrating the short-term optimization and long-term simulation of reservoir operations. The pivotal Shihmen Reservoir and 745 irrigation ponds located in Taoyuan City of Taiwan together with the surrounding urban areas formed the study case. The results indicated that the optimal short-term reservoir operation obtained from the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) could largely increase hydropower output but just slightly affected water supply. The simulation results of the reservoir coupled with irrigation ponds indicated that such joint operation could significantly reduce agricultural and public water shortage rates by 22.2% and 23.7% in average, respectively, as compared to those of reservoir operation excluding irrigation ponds. The results of year-round short/long-term joint operation showed that water shortage rates could be reduced by 10% at most, the food production rate could be increased by up to 47%, and the hydropower benefit could increase up to 9.33 million USD per year, respectively, in a wet year. Consequently, the proposed methodology could be a viable approach to promoting the synergistic benefits of the WFE Nexus, and the results provided unique insights for stakeholders and policymakers to pursue sustainable urban development plans. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Equating in Small-Scale Language Testing Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaFlair, Geoffrey T.; Isbell, Daniel; May, L. D. Nicolas; Gutierrez Arvizu, Maria Nelly; Jamieson, Joan

2017-01-01

Language programs need multiple test forms for secure administrations and effective placement decisions, but can they have confidence that scores on alternate test forms have the same meaning? In large-scale testing programs, various equating methods are available to ensure the comparability of forms. The choice of equating method is informed by…

Small-scale test program to develop a more efficient swivel nozzle thrust deflector for V/STOL lift/cruise engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schlundt, D. W.

1976-01-01

The installed performance degradation of a swivel nozzle thrust deflector system obtained during increased vectoring angles of a large-scale test program was investigated and improved. Small-scale models were used to generate performance data for analyzing selected swivel nozzle configurations. A single-swivel nozzle design model with five different nozzle configurations and a twin-swivel nozzle design model, scaled to 0.15 size of the large-scale test hardware, were statically tested at low exhaust pressure ratios of 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1 and vectored at four nozzle positions from 0 deg cruise through 90 deg vertical used for the VTOL mode.

Wynoochee Hydropower/Fish Hatchery: Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-09-30

Unresolved Issues. There are no unresolved issues associated with the Wynoochee hydropower/fish hatchery plan. 4. Relationship to Environmental...Requirements.l/ The relationship of the Wynoochee hydropower/fish hatchery plan to environmental requirements is summarized in the following table...Implementation of the plan would I/The relationship of the satellite fish station to the environmental requirements is not included in this discussion. Compliance

Quantitative variability of renewable energy resources in Norway

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christakos, Konstantinos; Varlas, George; Cheliotis, Ioannis; Aalstad, Kristoffer; Papadopoulos, Anastasios; Katsafados, Petros; Steeneveld, Gert-Jan

2017-04-01

Based on European Union (EU) targets for 2030, the share of renewable energy (RE) consumption should be increased at 27%. RE resources such as hydropower, wind, wave power and solar power are strongly depending on the chaotic behavior of the weather conditions and climate. Due to this dependency, the prediction of the spatiotemporal variability of the RE resources is more crucial factor than in other energy resources (i.e. carbon based energy). The fluctuation of the RE resources can affect the development of the RE technologies, the energy grid, supply and prices. This study investigates the variability of the potential RE resources in Norway. More specifically, hydropower, wind, wave, and solar power are quantitatively analyzed and correlated with respect to various spatial and temporal scales. In order to analyze the diversities and their interrelationships, reanalysis and observational data of wind, precipitation, wave, and solar radiation are used for a quantitative assessment. The results indicate a high variability of marine RE resources in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea.

Building a Bright Future. The Hydro Research Foundation's Fellowship Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vaughn, Brenna; Linke, Deborah M.

The Hydro Fellowship Program (program) began as an experiment to discover whether the hydropower industry could find mechanisms to attract new entrants through conducting relevant research to benefit the industry. This nationwide, new-to-the-world program was started through funding from the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Office of the Department of Energy (DOE). Between 2010-2015, the Hydro Research Foundation (HRF) designed and implemented a program to conduct valuable research and attract new entrants to the hydro workforce. This historic grant has empowered and engaged industry members from 25 organizations by working withmore » 91 students and advisors at 24 universities in 19 states. The work funded answered pressing research needs in the fields of civil, mechanical, environmental, and electrical engineering, as well as law, energy engineering and materials innovation. In terms of number of individuals touched through funding, 148 individuals were supported by this work through direct research, mentorship, oversight of the work, partnerships and the day-to-day program administration. Based on the program results, it is clear that the funding achieved the hoped-for outcomes and has the capacity to draw universities into the orbit of hydropower and continue the conversation about industry research and development needs. The Foundation has fostered unique partnerships at the host universities and has continued to thrive with the support of the universities, advisors, industry and the DOE. The Foundation has demonstrated industry support through mentorships, partnerships, underwriting the costs and articulating the universities’ support through in-kind cost sharing. The Foundation recommends that future work be continued to nurture these graduate level programs using the initial work and improvements in the successor program, the Research Awards Program, while stimulating engagement of academia at the community college level for operations and maintenance workforce development.« less

Forces acting on particles in a Pelton bucket and similarity considerations for erosion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rai, A. K.; Kumar, A.; Staubli, T.

2016-11-01

High sediment transport rates cause severe erosion issues in hydropower plants leading to interruptions in power generation, decrease in efficiency and shutdown for repair and maintenance. For Pelton turbines operating at high head, the issue of erosion is severe, especially in components like buckets, nozzle rings and needles. Goal of the study is to develop erosion focussed guidelines for both designing as well as operating hydropower plants with Pelton runners. In this study, the flow of sediment inside a Pelton bucket with respect to forces acting on solid particles is analysed with an analytical approach by considering different dynamic forces originating from the rotation of the turbine, the curvature of the buckets, and the Coriolis effect. Further, the path of sediment particles and its effect on erosion phenomena are analysed based on the process of separation of different sized sediment particles from streamlines. The data relating to head, power, discharge, number of jet and efficiency of 250 hydropower plants installed all over the world were analysed in this study to find the major factors related to erosion in Pelton turbine bucket. From analysis of different force ratios, it is found that an increase of D/B, i.e. the ratio of pitch circle diameter and bucket width, and/or decrease of specific speed (nq) enhances erosion. As the erosion process depends significantly on nondimensional parameters D/B and nq, these are considered as similarity measures for scaling of the erosion process in the Pelton buckets of various sizes.

Data-Based Performance Assessments for the DOE Hydropower Advancement Project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

March, Patrick; Wolff, Dr. Paul; Smith, Brennan T

2012-01-01

The U. S. Department of Energy s Hydropower Advancement Project (HAP) was initiated to characterize and trend hydropower asset conditions across the U.S.A. s existing hydropower fleet and to identify and evaluate the upgrading opportunities. Although HAP includes both detailed performance assessments and condition assessments of existing hydropower plants, this paper focuses on the performance assessments. Plant performance assessments provide a set of statistics and indices that characterize the historical extent to which each plant has converted the potential energy at a site into electrical energy for the power system. The performance metrics enable benchmarking and trending of performance acrossmore » many projects in a variety contexts (e.g., river systems, power systems, and water availability). During FY2011 and FY2012, assessments will be performed on ten plants, with an additional fifty plants scheduled for FY2013. This paper focuses on the performance assessments completed to date, details the performance assessment process, and describes results from the performance assessments.« less

Predicting environmental mitigation requirements for hydropower projects through the integration of biophysical and socio-political geographies

DOE PAGES

Bevelhimer, Mark S.; DeRolph, Christopher R.; Schramm, Michael P.

2016-06-06

Uncertainty about environmental mitigation needs at existing and proposed hydropower projects makes it difficult for stakeholders to minimize environmental impacts. Hydropower developers and operators desire tools to better anticipate mitigation requirements, while natural resource managers and regulators need tools to evaluate different mitigation scenarios and order effective mitigation. Here we sought to examine the feasibility of using a suite of multidisciplinary explanatory variables within a spatially explicit modeling framework to fit predictive models for future environmental mitigation requirements at hydropower projects across the conterminous U.S. Using a database comprised of mitigation requirements from more than 300 hydropower project licenses, wemore » were able to successfully fit models for nearly 50 types of environmental mitigation and to apply the predictive models to a set of more than 500 non-powered dams identified as having hydropower potential. The results demonstrate that mitigation requirements have been a result of a range of factors, from biological and hydrological to political and cultural. Furthermore, project developers can use these models to inform cost projections and design considerations, while regulators can use the models to more quickly identify likely environmental issues and potential solutions, hopefully resulting in more timely and more effective decisions on environmental mitigation.« less

Predicting environmental mitigation requirements for hydropower projects through the integration of biophysical and socio-political geographies.

PubMed

DeRolph, Christopher R; Schramm, Michael P; Bevelhimer, Mark S

2016-10-01

Uncertainty about environmental mitigation needs at existing and proposed hydropower projects makes it difficult for stakeholders to minimize environmental impacts. Hydropower developers and operators desire tools to better anticipate mitigation requirements, while natural resource managers and regulators need tools to evaluate different mitigation scenarios and order effective mitigation. Here we sought to examine the feasibility of using a suite of multi-faceted explanatory variables within a spatially explicit modeling framework to fit predictive models for future environmental mitigation requirements at hydropower projects across the conterminous U.S. Using a database comprised of mitigation requirements from more than 300 hydropower project licenses, we were able to successfully fit models for nearly 50 types of environmental mitigation and to apply the predictive models to a set of more than 500 non-powered dams identified as having hydropower potential. The results demonstrate that mitigation requirements are functions of a range of factors, from biophysical to socio-political. Project developers can use these models to inform cost projections and design considerations, while regulators can use the models to more quickly identify likely environmental issues and potential solutions, hopefully resulting in more timely and more effective decisions on environmental mitigation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Predicting environmental mitigation requirements for hydropower projects through the integration of biophysical and socio-political geographies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bevelhimer, Mark S.; DeRolph, Christopher R.; Schramm, Michael P.

Uncertainty about environmental mitigation needs at existing and proposed hydropower projects makes it difficult for stakeholders to minimize environmental impacts. Hydropower developers and operators desire tools to better anticipate mitigation requirements, while natural resource managers and regulators need tools to evaluate different mitigation scenarios and order effective mitigation. Here we sought to examine the feasibility of using a suite of multidisciplinary explanatory variables within a spatially explicit modeling framework to fit predictive models for future environmental mitigation requirements at hydropower projects across the conterminous U.S. Using a database comprised of mitigation requirements from more than 300 hydropower project licenses, wemore » were able to successfully fit models for nearly 50 types of environmental mitigation and to apply the predictive models to a set of more than 500 non-powered dams identified as having hydropower potential. The results demonstrate that mitigation requirements have been a result of a range of factors, from biological and hydrological to political and cultural. Furthermore, project developers can use these models to inform cost projections and design considerations, while regulators can use the models to more quickly identify likely environmental issues and potential solutions, hopefully resulting in more timely and more effective decisions on environmental mitigation.« less

Framing hydropower as green energy: assessing drivers, risks and tensions in the Eastern Himalayas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahlers, R.; Budds, J.; Joshi, D.; Merme, V.; Zwarteveen, M.

2015-04-01

The culturally and ecologically diverse region of the Eastern Himalayas is the target of ambitious hydropower development plans. Policy discourses at national and international levels position this development as synergistically positive: it combines the production of clean energy to fuel economic growth at regional and national levels with initiatives to lift poor mountain communities out of poverty. Different from hydropower development in the 20th century in which development agencies and banks were important players, contemporary initiatives importantly rely on the involvement of private actors, with a prominent role of the private finance sector. This implies that hydropower development is not only financially viable but also understood as highly profitable. This paper examines the new development of hydropower in the Eastern Himalayas of Nepal and India. It questions its framing as green energy, interrogates its links with climate change, and examines its potential for investment and capital accumulation. To do this, we also review the evidence on the extent to which its construction and operation may modify existing hydrogeological processes and ecosystems, as well as its impacts on the livelihoods of diverse groups of people that depend on these. The paper concludes that hydropower development in the region is characterized by inherent contentions and uncertainties, refuting the idea that dams constitute development projects whose impacts can be simply predicted, controlled and mitigated. Indeed, in a highly complex geological, ecological, cultural and political context that is widely regarded to be especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, hydropower as a development strategy makes for a toxic cocktail.

Framing hydropower as green energy: assessing drivers, risks and tensions in the Eastern Himalayas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahlers, R.; Budds, J.; Joshi, D.; Merme, V.; Zwarteveen, M.

2014-11-01

The culturally and ecologically diverse region of the Eastern Himalayas is the target of ambitious hydropower development plans. Policy discourses at national and international levels position this development as synergistically positive: it combines the production of clean energy to fuel economic growth at regional and national levels with initiatives to lift poor mountain communities out of poverty. Different from hydropower development in the 20th century in which development agencies and banks were important players, contemporary initiatives importantly rely on the involvement of private actors, with a prominent role of the private finance sector. This implies that hydropower development is not only financially viable but also understood as highly profitable. This paper examines the new development of hydropower in the Eastern Himalaya of Nepal and India. It questions its framing as green energy, interrogates its links with climate change, and examines its potential for investment and capital accumulation. To do this, we also review the evidence on the extent to which its construction and operation may modify existing hydrogeological processes and ecosystems, as well as its impacts on the livelihoods of diverse groups of people that depend on these. The paper concludes that hydropower development in the region is characterised by inherent contentions and uncertainties, refuting the idea that dams constitute development projects whose impacts can be simply predicted, controlled and mitigated. Indeed, in a highly complex geological, ecological, cultural and political context that is widely regarded to be especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, hydropower as a development strategy makes for a toxic cocktail.

Greenhouse gas emissions of hydropower in the Mekong River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Räsänen, Timo A.; Varis, Olli; Scherer, Laura; Kummu, Matti

2018-03-01

The Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia is undergoing extensive hydropower development, but the magnitudes of related greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are not well known. We provide the first screening of GHG emissions of 141 existing and planned reservoirs in the basin, with a focus on atmospheric gross emissions through the reservoir water surface. The emissions were estimated using statistical models that are based on global emission measurements. The hydropower reservoirs (119) were found to have an emission range of 0.2-1994 kg CO2e MWh-1 over a 100 year lifetime with a median of 26 kg CO2e MWh-1. Hydropower reservoirs facilitating irrigation (22) had generally higher emissions reaching over 22 000 kg CO2e MWh-1. The emission fluxes for all reservoirs (141) had a range of 26-1813 000 t CO2e yr-1 over a 100 year lifetime with a median of 28 000 t CO2e yr-1. Altogether, 82% of hydropower reservoirs (119) and 45% of reservoirs also facilitating irrigation (22) have emissions comparable to other renewable energy sources (<190 kg CO2e MWh-1), while the rest have higher emissions equalling even the emission from fossil fuel power plants (>380 kg CO2e MWh-1). These results are tentative and they suggest that hydropower in the Mekong Region cannot be considered categorically as low-emission energy. Instead, the GHG emissions of hydropower should be carefully considered case-by-case together with the other impacts on the natural and social environment.

A New Tool for Environmental and Economic Optimization of Hydropower Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saha, S.; Hayse, J. W.

2012-12-01

As part of a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers from Argonne, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Sandia National Laboratories collaborated on the development of an integrated toolset to enhance hydropower operational decisions related to economic value and environmental performance. As part of this effort, we developed an analytical approach (Index of River Functionality, IRF) and an associated software tool to evaluate how well discharge regimes achieve ecosystem management goals for hydropower facilities. This approach defines site-specific environmental objectives using relationships between environmental metrics and hydropower-influenced flow characteristics (e.g., discharge or temperature), with consideration given to seasonal timing, duration, and return frequency requirements for the environmental objectives. The IRF approach evaluates the degree to which an operational regime meets each objective and produces a score representing how well that regime meets the overall set of defined objectives. When integrated with other components in the toolset that are used to plan hydropower operations based upon hydrologic forecasts and various constraints on operations, the IRF approach allows an optimal release pattern to be developed based upon tradeoffs between environmental performance and economic value. We tested the toolset prototype to generate a virtual planning operation for a hydropower facility located in the Upper Colorado River basin as a demonstration exercise. We conducted planning as if looking five months into the future using data for the recently concluded 2012 water year. The environmental objectives for this demonstration were related to spawning and nursery habitat for endangered fishes using metrics associated with maintenance of instream habitat and reconnection of the main channel with floodplain wetlands in a representative reach of the river. We also applied existing mandatory operational constraints for the facility during the demonstration. We compared the optimized virtual operation identified by the toolset to actual operations at the facility for the same time period to evaluate implications of the optimized operational regime on power/revenue generation and environmental performance. Argonne National Laboratory's work was part of a larger "Water-Use-Optimization" project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Water Power Program, under Announcement DE-FOA-0000070. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory ("Argonne"). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.

Energy-Water Nexus Relevant to Baseload Electricity Source Including Mini/Micro Hydropower Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujii, M.; Tanabe, S.; Yamada, M.

2014-12-01

Water, food and energy is three sacred treasures that are necessary for human beings. However, recent factors such as population growth and rapid increase in energy consumption have generated conflicting cases between water and energy. For example, there exist conflicts caused by enhanced energy use, such as between hydropower generation and riverine ecosystems and service water, between shale gas and ground water, between geothermal and hot spring water. This study aims to provide quantitative guidelines necessary for capacity building among various stakeholders to minimize water-energy conflicts in enhancing energy use. Among various kinds of renewable energy sources, we target baseload sources, especially focusing on renewable energy of which installation is required socially not only to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions but to stimulate local economy. Such renewable energy sources include micro/mini hydropower and geothermal. Three municipalities in Japan, Beppu City, Obama City and Otsuchi Town are selected as primary sites of this study. Based on the calculated potential supply and demand of micro/mini hydropower generation in Beppu City, for example, we estimate the electricity of tens through hundreds of households is covered by installing new micro/mini hydropower generation plants along each river. However, the result is based on the existing infrastructures such as roads and electric lines. This means that more potentials are expected if the local society chooses options that enhance the infrastructures to increase micro/mini hydropower generation plants. In addition, further capacity building in the local society is necessary. In Japan, for example, regulations by the river law and irrigation right restrict new entry by actors to the river. Possible influences to riverine ecosystems in installing new micro/mini hydropower generation plants should also be well taken into account. Deregulation of the existing laws relevant to rivers and further incentives for business owners of micro/mini hydropower generation along with current feed-in tariff are required if our society choose an option to enhance the renewable energy.

Balancing hydropower production and river bed incision in operating a run-of-river hydropower scheme along the River Po

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denaro, Simona; Dinh, Quang; Bizzi, Simone; Bernardi, Dario; Pavan, Sara; Castelletti, Andrea; Schippa, Leonardo; Soncini-Sessa, Rodolfo

2013-04-01

Water management through dams and reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human-related activities ranging from hydropower production to water allocation, and flood risk mitigation. Reservoir operations are commonly planned in order to maximize these objectives. However reservoirs strongly influence river geomorphic processes causing sediment deficit downstream, altering the flow regime, leading, often, to process of river bed incision: for instance the variations of river cross sections over few years can notably affect hydropower production, flood mitigation, water supply strategies and eco-hydrological processes of the freshwater ecosystem. The river Po (a major Italian river) has experienced severe bed incision in the last decades. For this reason infrastructure stability has been negatively affected, and capacity to derive water decreased, navigation, fishing and tourism are suffering economic damages, not to mention the impact on the environment. Our case study analyzes the management of Isola Serafini hydropower plant located on the main Po river course. The plant has a major impact to the geomorphic river processes downstream, affecting sediment supply, connectivity (stopping sediment upstream the dam) and transport capacity (altering the flow regime). Current operation policy aims at maximizing hydropower production neglecting the effects in term of geomorphic processes. A new improved policy should also consider controlling downstream river bed incision. The aim of this research is to find suitable modeling framework to identify an operating policy for Isola Serafini reservoir able to provide an optimal trade-off between these two conflicting objectives: hydropower production and river bed incision downstream. A multi-objective simulation-based optimization framework is adopted. The operating policy is parameterized as a piecewise linear function and the parameters optimized using an interactive response surface approach. Global and local response surface are comparatively assessed. Preliminary results show that a range of potentially interesting trade-off policies exist able to better control river bed incision downstream without significantly decreasing hydropower production.

Water and Regional Stability: The Nile a Case Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-24

including agriculture, hydropower , economic growth, and maintaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem. Each nation may not alter the quantity or quality of the...Victoria which is the largest lake in Africa covering 69,000 km2. The White Nile contributes a small but steady flow of water, about 14 percent of the...linked the availability of sufficient clean water to an area’s economic potential. 20 Countries that have a very low per capita Gross Domestic Product

Effects of small hydropower plants on mercury concentrations in fish.

PubMed

Cebalho, Elaine C; Díez, Sergi; Dos Santos Filho, Manoel; Muniz, Claumir Cesar; Lázaro, Wilkinson; Malm, Olaf; Ignácio, Aurea R A

2017-10-01

Although the impacts of large dams on freshwater biota are relatively well known, the effects of small hydropower plants (SHP) are not well investigated. In this work, we studied if mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish rise in two tropical SHP reservoirs, and whether similar effects take place during impoundment. Total Hg concentrations in several fish species were determined at two SHP in the Upper Guaporé River basin floodplain, Brazil. In total, 185 specimens were analysed for Hg content in dorsal muscle and none of them reported levels above the safety limit (500 μg kg -1 ) for fish consumption recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The highest levels of Hg (231 and 447 μg kg -1 ) were found in carnivorous species in both reservoirs. Mercury increased as a function of standard length in most of the fish populations in the reservoirs, and higher Hg concentrations were found in fish at the reservoir compared with fish downstream. The high dissolved oxygen concentrations and high transparency of the water column (i.e. oligotrophic reservoir) together with the absence of thermal stratification may explain low Hg methylation and low MeHg levels found in fish after flooding. Overall, according to limnological characteristics of water, we may hypothesise that reservoir conditions are not favourable to high net Hg methylation.

Hydropower assessment of Bolivia—A multisource satellite data and hydrologic modeling approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Velpuri, Naga Manohar; Pervez, Shahriar; Cushing, W. Matthew

2016-11-28

This study produced a geospatial database for use in a decision support system by the Bolivian authorities to investigate further development and investment potentials in sustainable hydropower in Bolivia. The study assessed theoretical hydropower of all 1-kilometer (km) stream segments in the country using multisource satellite data and a hydrologic modeling approach. With the assessment covering the 2 million square kilometer (km2) region influencing Bolivia’s drainage network, the potential hydropower figures are based on theoretical yield assuming that the systems generating the power are 100 percent efficient. There are several factors to consider when determining the real-world or technical power potential of a hydropower system, and these factors can vary depending on local conditions. Since this assessment covers a large area, it was necessary to reduce these variables to the two that can be modeled consistently throughout the region, streamflow or discharge, and elevation drop or head. First, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission high-resolution 30-meter (m) digital elevation model was used to identify stream segments with greater than 10 km2 of upstream drainage. We applied several preconditioning processes to the 30-m digital elevation model to reduce errors and improve the accuracy of stream delineation and head height estimation. A total of 316,500 1-km stream segments were identified and used in this study to assess the total theoretical hydropower potential of Bolivia. Precipitation observations from a total of 463 stations obtained from the Bolivian Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología (Bolivian National Meteorology and Hydrology Service) and the Brazilian Agência Nacional de Águas (Brazilian National Water Agency) were used to validate six different gridded precipitation estimates for Bolivia obtained from various sources. Validation results indicated that gridded precipitation estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) reanalysis product (3B43) had the highest accuracies. The coarse-resolution (25-km) TRMM data were disaggregated to 5-km pixels using climatology information obtained from the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations dataset. About a 17-percent bias was observed in the disaggregated TRMM estimates, which was corrected using the station observations. The bias-corrected, disaggregated TRMM precipitation estimate was used to compute stream discharge using a regionalization approach. In regionalization approach, required homogeneous regions for Bolivia were derived from precipitation patterns and topographic characteristics using a k-means clustering approach. Using the discharge and head height estimates for each 1-km stream segment, we computed hydropower potential for 316,490 stream segments within Bolivia and that share borders with Bolivia. The total theoretical hydropower potential (TTHP) of these stream segments was found to be 212 gigawatts (GW). Out of this total, 77.4 GW was within protected areas where hydropower projects cannot be developed; hence, the remaining total theoretical hydropower in Bolivia (outside the protected areas) was estimated as 135 GW. Nearly 1,000 1-km stream segments, however, were within the boundaries of existing hydropower projects. The TTHP of these stream segments was nearly 1.4 GW, so the residual TTHP of the streams in Bolivia was estimated as 133 GW. Care should be exercised to understand and interpret the TTHP identified in this study because all the stream segments identified and assessed in this study cannot be harnessed to their full capacity; furthermore, factors such as required environmental flows, efficiency, economics, and feasibility need to be considered to better identify a more real-world hydropower potential. If environmental flow requirements of 20–40 percent are considered, the total theoretical power available reduces by 60–80 percent. In addition, a 0.72 efficiency factor further reduces the estimation by another 28 percent. This study provides the base theoretical hydropower potential for Bolivia, the next step is to identify optimal hydropower plant locations and factor in the principles to appraise a real-world power potential in Bolivia.

Philippines: Small-scale renewable energy update

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1997-12-01

This paper gives an overview of the application of small scale renewable energy sources in the Philippines. Sources looked at include solar, biomass, micro-hydroelectric, mini-hydroelectric, wind, mini-geothermal, and hybrid. A small power utilities group is being spun off the major utility, to provide a structure for developing rural electrification programs. In some instances, private companies have stepped forward, avoiding what is perceived as overwhelming beaurocracy, and installed systems with private financing. The paper provides information on survey work which has been done on resources, and the status of cooperative programs to develop renewable systems in the nation.

Pautas para Programas de Asesoramiento Gestional para Microempresas (Guidelines for Management Consulting Programs for Small-Scale Enterprise). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-27.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, Gary L.

Written in Spanish, this manual is designed to assist management consultants in working with small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries. Addressed in an overview of the small-scale enterprise (SSE) are the role of the SSE in Third World development, problems of SSEs, and target firms. The second chapter deals with various forms of…

LICENSING HYDROPOWER PROJECTS: Better Time and Cost Data Needed to Reach Informed Decisions About Process Reforms

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-05-01

GAO United States General Accounting Office Report to Congressional Requesters May 2001 LICENSING HYDROPOWER PROJECTS Better Time and Cost Data...Dates Covered (from... to) ("DD MON YYYY") Title and Subtitle LICENSING HYDROPOWER PROJECTS: Better Time and Cost Data Needed to Reach Informed...Organization Name(s) and Address(es) General Accounting Office, PO Box 37050, Washington, DC 20013 Performing Organization Number(s) GAO-01-499

Turbine Aeration Design Software for Mitigating Adverse Environmental Impacts Resulting From Conventional Hydropower Turbines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gulliver, John S.

2015-03-01

Conventional hydropower turbine aeration test-bed for computational routines and software tools for improving environmental mitigation technologies for conventional hydropower systems. In achieving this goal, we have partnered with Alstom, a global leader in energy technology development and United States power generation, with additional funding from the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE) and the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) at the UMN

Study on the adverse effects of hydropower development on international shipping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Changhong

2017-04-01

The Lancang - Mekong river is an important international waterway to Southeast Asia and South Asia, which has important strategic significance for promoting regional economic cooperation and safeguarding national economic and security interests. On the Mekong River, the main aim is to develop hydropower resources utilization and shipping. River Hydropower Stations are in Laos and designed by foreign enterprises according to the construction of BOT. In this study, on the basis of a lot of research work and extensive collection of relevant information, and, through in-depth analysis of research, it reveals that the upper Mekong River hydropower development have many adverse effects on international shipping, put forward related suggestions for the healthy and sustainable development of international shipping.

Water-Food Nexus on Lancang-Mekong River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, P.; Tian, F.; Hu, H.

2017-12-01

Water-Food-Energy nexus on Lancang-Mekong river basin In the Lancang-Mekong river basin, the connexions between climate and the water-food-energy nexus are strong. One of them can be reflected by the hydropower energy and irrigation sectors, impacted since these last years by intense droughts and increasing salinity. The purpose of this study is to understand quantitatively how the current hydropower impact on the streamflow and the irrigated crops will be influenced by the climate change for the next 30 years. A hydropower-crop model is computed to reproduce hydropower generation and revenue, revenue from crop and crop area in 2050. The outcomes will be used for water management in the region and strengthen the cooperation mechanisms between Mekong riparian countries.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program. Bibliography, 1993 edition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vaughan, K.H.

1993-06-01

The Bibliography contains listings of publicly available reports, journal articles, and published conference papers sponsored by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and published between 1987 and mid-1993. The topics of Bibliography include: analysis and evaluation; building equipment research; building thermal envelope systems and materials; district heating; residential and commercial conservation program; weatherization assistance program; existing buildings research program; ceramic technology project; alternative fuels and propulsion technology; microemulsion fuels; industrial chemical heat pumps; materials for advanced industrial heat exchangers; advanced industrial materials; tribology; energy-related inventions program; electric energy systems; superconducting technology program for electric energy systems; thermalmore » energy storage; biofuels feedstock development; biotechnology; continuous chromatography in multicomponent separations; sensors for electrolytic cells; hydropower environmental mitigation; environmental control technology; continuous fiber ceramic composite technology.« less

A methodology for small scale rural land use mapping in semi-arid developing countries using orbital imagery. 1: Introduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vangenderen, J. L. (Principal Investigator); Lock, B. F.

1976-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. This research program has developed a viable methodology for producing small scale rural land use maps in semi-arid developing countries using imagery obtained from orbital multispectral scanners.

Effects of multiple stresses hydropower, acid deposition and climate change on water chemistry and salmon populations in the River Otra, Norway.

PubMed

Wright, Richard F; Couture, Raoul-Marie; Christiansen, Anne B; Guerrero, José-Luis; Kaste, Øyvind; Barlaup, Bjørn T

2017-01-01

Many surface waters in Europe suffer from the adverse effects of multiple stresses. The Otra River, southernmost Norway, is impacted by acid deposition, hydropower development and increasingly by climate change. The river holds a unique population of land-locked salmon and anadromous salmon in the lower reaches. Both populations have been severely affected by acidification. The decrease in acid deposition since the 1980s has led to partial recovery of both populations. Climate change with higher temperatures and altered precipitation can potentially further impact fish populations. We used a linked set of process-oriented models to simulate future climate, discharge, and water chemistry at five sub-catchments in the Otra river basin. Projections to year 2100 indicate that future climate change will give a small but measureable improvement in water quality, but that additional reductions in acid deposition are needed to promote full restoration of the fish communities. These results can help guide management decisions to sustain key salmon habitats and carry out effective long-term mitigation strategies such as liming. The Otra River is typical of many rivers in Europe in that it fails to achieve the good ecological status target of the EU Water Framework Directive. The programme of measures needed in the river basin management plan necessarily must consider the multiple stressors of acid deposition, hydropower, and climate change. This is difficult, however, as the synergistic and antagonistic effects are complex and challenging to address with modelling tools currently available. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dynamic water allocation policies improve the global efficiency of storage systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niayifar, Amin; Perona, Paolo

2017-06-01

Water impoundment by dams strongly affects the river natural flow regime, its attributes and the related ecosystem biodiversity. Fostering the sustainability of water uses e.g., hydropower systems thus implies searching for innovative operational policies able to generate Dynamic Environmental Flows (DEF) that mimic natural flow variability. The objective of this study is to propose a Direct Policy Search (DPS) framework based on defining dynamic flow release rules to improve the global efficiency of storage systems. The water allocation policies proposed for dammed systems are an extension of previously developed flow redistribution rules for small hydropower plants by Razurel et al. (2016).The mathematical form of the Fermi-Dirac statistical distribution applied to lake equations for the stored water in the dam is used to formulate non-proportional redistribution rules that partition the flow for energy production and environmental use. While energy production is computed from technical data, riverine ecological benefits associated with DEF are computed by integrating the Weighted Usable Area (WUA) for fishes with Richter's hydrological indicators. Then, multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are applied to build ecological versus economic efficiency plot and locate its (Pareto) frontier. This study benchmarks two MOEAs (NSGA II and Borg MOEA) and compares their efficiency in terms of the quality of Pareto's frontier and computational cost. A detailed analysis of dam characteristics is performed to examine their impact on the global system efficiency and choice of the best redistribution rule. Finally, it is found that non-proportional flow releases can statistically improve the global efficiency, specifically the ecological one, of the hydropower system when compared to constant minimal flows.

Water, energy and agricultural landuse trends at Shiroro hydropower station and environs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adegun, Olubunmi; Ajayi, Olalekan; Badru, Gbolahan; Odunuga, Shakirudeen

2018-02-01

The study examines the interplay among water resources, hydropower generation and agricultural landuse at the Shiroro hydropower station and its environs, in north-central Nigeria. Non-parametric trend analysis, hydropower footprint estimation, reservoir performance analysis, change detection analysis, and inferential statistics were combined to study the water-energy and food security nexus. Results of Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator for the period 1960 to 2013 showed a declining rainfall trend at Jos, around River Kaduna headwaters at -2.6 mm yr-1, while rainfall at Kaduna and Minna upstream and downstream of the reservoir respectively showed no trend. Estimates of hydropower footprint varied between 130.4 and 704.1 m3 GJ-1 between 1995 and 2013. Power generation reliability and resilience of the reservoir was 31.6 and 38.5 % respectively with year 2011 being the most vulnerable and least satisfactory. In addition to poor reliability and resilience indices, other challenges militating against good performance of hydropower generation includes population growth and climate change issues as exemplified in the downward trend observed at the headwaters. Water inflow and power generation shows a weak positive relationship with correlation coefficient (r) of 0.48, indicating less than optimal power generation. Total area of land cultivated increased from 884.59 km2 in 1986 prior to the commissioning of the hydropower station to 1730.83 km2 in 2016 which signifies an increased contribution of the dam to ensuring food security. The reality of reducing upstream rainfall amount coupled with high water footprint of electricity from the reservoir, therefore requires that a long term roadmap to improve operational coordination and management have to be put in place.

Towards Optimal Operation of the Reservoir System in Upper Yellow River: Incorporating Long- and Short-term Operations and Using Rolling Updated Hydrologic Forecast Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Si, Y.; Li, X.; Li, T.; Huang, Y.; Yin, D.

2016-12-01

The cascade reservoirs in Upper Yellow River (UYR), one of the largest hydropower bases in China, play a vital role in peak load and frequency regulation for Northwest China Power Grid. The joint operation of this system has been put forward for years whereas has not come into effect due to management difficulties and inflow uncertainties, and thus there is still considerable improvement room for hydropower production. This study presents a decision support framework incorporating long- and short-term operation of the reservoir system. For long-term operation, we maximize hydropower production of the reservoir system using historical hydrological data of multiple years, and derive operating rule curves for storage reservoirs. For short-term operation, we develop a program consisting of three modules, namely hydrologic forecast module, reservoir operation module and coordination module. The coordination module is responsible for calling the hydrologic forecast module to acquire predicted inflow within a short-term horizon, and transferring the information to the reservoir operation module to generate optimal release decision. With the hydrologic forecast information updated, the rolling short-term optimization is iterated until the end of operation period, where the long-term operating curves serve as the ending storage target. As an application, the Digital Yellow River Integrated Model (referred to as "DYRIM", which is specially designed for runoff-sediment simulation in the Yellow River basin by Tsinghua University) is used in the hydrologic forecast module, and the successive linear programming (SLP) in the reservoir operation module. The application in the reservoir system of UYR demonstrates that the framework can effectively support real-time decision making, and ensure both computational accuracy and speed. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the general framework can be extended to any other reservoir system with any or combination of hydrological model(s) to forecast and any solver to optimize the operation of reservoir system.

Improving the flow representation in a stochastic programming model for hydropower operations in Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morales, Y.; Olivares, M. A.; Vargas, X.

2015-12-01

This research aims to improve the representation of stochastic water inflows to hydropower plants used in a grid-wide, power production scheduling model in central Chile. The model prescribes the operation of every plant in the system, including hydropower plants located in several basins, and uses stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) with possible inflow scenarios defined from historical records. Each year of record is treated as a sample of weekly inflows to power plants, assuming this intrinsically incorporates spatial and temporal correlations, without any further autocorrelation analysis of the hydrological time series. However, standard good practice suggests the use of synthetic flows instead of raw historical records.The proposed approach generates synthetic inflow scenarios based on hydrological modeling of a few basins in the system and transposition of flows with other basins within so-called homogeneous zones. Hydrologic models use precipitation and temperature as inputs, and therefore this approach requires producing samples of those variables. Development and calibration of these models imply a greater demand of time compared to the purely statistical approach to synthetic flows. This approach requires consideration of the main uses in the basins: agriculture and hydroelectricity. Moreover a geostatistical analysis of the area is analyzed to generate a map that identifies the relationship between the points where the hydrological information is generated and other points of interest within the power system. Consideration of homogeneous zones involves a decrease in the effort required for generation of information compared with hydrological modeling of every point of interest. It is important to emphasize that future scenarios are derived through a probabilistic approach that incorporates the features of the hydrological year type (dry, normal or wet), covering the different possibilities in terms of availability of water resources. We present the results for Maule basin in Chile's Central Interconnected System (SIC).

Dynamics analysis of the fast-slow hydro-turbine governing system with different time-scale coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hao; Chen, Diyi; Wu, Changzhi; Wang, Xiangyu

2018-01-01

Multi-time scales modeling of hydro-turbine governing system is crucial in precise modeling of hydropower plant and provides support for the stability analysis of the system. Considering the inertia and response time of the hydraulic servo system, the hydro-turbine governing system is transformed into the fast-slow hydro-turbine governing system. The effects of the time-scale on the dynamical behavior of the system are analyzed and the fast-slow dynamical behaviors of the system are investigated with different time-scale. Furthermore, the theoretical analysis of the stable regions is presented. The influences of the time-scale on the stable region are analyzed by simulation. The simulation results prove the correctness of the theoretical analysis. More importantly, the methods and results of this paper provide a perspective to multi-time scales modeling of hydro-turbine governing system and contribute to the optimization analysis and control of the system.

Designing for Scale: Reflections on Rolling Out Reading Improvement in Kenya and Liberia.

PubMed

Gove, Amber; Korda Poole, Medina; Piper, Benjamin

2017-03-01

Since 2008, the Ministries of Education in Liberia and Kenya have undertaken transitions from small-scale pilot programs to improve reading outcomes among primary learners to the large-scale implementation of reading interventions. The effects of the pilots on learning outcomes were significant, but questions remained regarding whether such large gains could be sustained at scale. In this article, the authors dissect the Liberian and Kenyan experiences with implementing large-scale reading programs, documenting the critical components and conditions of the program designs that affected the likelihood of successfully transitioning from pilot to scale. They also review the design, deployment, and effectiveness of each pilot program and the scale, design, duration, enabling conditions, and initial effectiveness results of the scaled programs in each country. The implications of these results for the design of both pilot and large-scale reading programs are discussed in light of the experiences of both the Liberian and Kenyan programs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Value of ecosystem hydropower service and its impact on the payment for ecosystem services.

PubMed

Fu, B; Wang, Y K; Xu, P; Yan, K; Li, M

2014-02-15

Hydropower is an important service provided by ecosystems. We surveyed all the hydropower plants in the Zagunao River Basin, Southwest China. Then, we assessed the hydropower service by using the InVEST (The Integrated Value and Tradeoff of Ecosystem Service Tools) model. Finally, we discussed the impact on ecological compensation. The results showed that: 1) hydropower service value of ecosystems in the Zagunao River Basin is 216.29 Euro/hm(2) on the average, of which the high-value area with more than 475.65 Euro/hm(2) is about 750.37 km(2), accounting for 16.12% of the whole watershed, but it provides 53.47% of the whole watershed service value; 2) ecosystem is an ecological reservoir with a great regulation capacity. Dams cannot completely replace the reservoir water conservation function of ecosystems, and has high economic and environmental costs that must be paid as well. Compensation for water conservation services should become an important basis for ecological compensation of hydropower development. 3) In the current PES cases, the standard of compensation is generally low. Cascade development makes the value of upstream ecosystem services become more prominent, reflecting the differential rent value, and the value of ecosystem services should be based on the distribution of differentiated ecological compensation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scaling participation in payments for ecosystem services programs

PubMed Central

Donlan, C. Josh; Boyle, Kevin J.; Xu, Weibin; Gelcich, Stefan

2018-01-01

Payments for ecosystem services programs have become common tools but most have failed to achieve wide-ranging conservation outcomes. The capacity for scale and impact increases when PES programs are designed through the lens of the potential participants, yet this has received little attention in research or practice. Our work with small-scale marine fisheries integrates the social science of PES programs and provides a framework for designing programs that focus a priori on scaling. In addition to payments, desirable non-monetary program attributes and ecological feedbacks attract a wider range of potential participants into PES programs, including those who have more negative attitudes and lower trust. Designing programs that draw individuals into participating in PES programs is likely the most strategic path to reaching scale. Research should engage in new models of participatory research to understand these dynamics and to design programs that explicitly integrate a broad range of needs, values, and modes of implementation. PMID:29522554

Water resources management. World Bank policy study; Ordenacion de los recursos hidricos

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1994-12-31

This study examines new World Bank policies that deal with scarce water resources in developing countries. The study describes key policy goals that each country program should adopt. Practical ways to modernize irrigation techniques and hydropower systems, to protect ecosystems, minimize resettlement, and maintain biodiversity are outlined. Low-cost methods of providing drinking water for the rural poor and water for industry and agriculture are recommended.

Directives Relatives a l'Elaboration de Programmes de Conseil en Gestion pour Petites Entreprises (Guidelines for Management Consulting Programs for Small-Scale Enterprise). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-29.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, Gary L.

Written in French, this manual is designed to assist management consultants in working with small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries. Addressed in an overview of the small-scale enterprise (SSE) are the role of the SSE in Third World development, problems of SSEs, and target firms. The second chapter deals with various forms of management…

On the performance of updating Stochastic Dynamic Programming policy using Ensemble Streamflow Prediction in a snow-covered region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, A.; Pascal, C.; Leconte, R.

2014-12-01

Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) is known to be an effective technique to find the optimal operating policy of hydropower systems. In order to improve the performance of SDP, this project evaluates the impact of re-updating the policy at every time step by using Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP). We present a case study of the Kemano's hydropower system on the Nechako River in British Columbia, Canada. Managed by Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA), this system is subject to large streamflow volumes in spring due to important amount of snow depth during the winter season. Therefore, the operating policy should not only maximize production but also minimize the risk of flooding. The hydrological behavior of the system is simulated with CEQUEAU, a distributed and deterministic hydrological model developed by the Institut national de la recherche scientifique - Eau, Terre et Environnement (INRS-ETE) in Quebec, Canada. On each decision time step, CEQUEAU is used to generate ESP scenarios based on historical meteorological sequences and the current state of the hydrological model. These scenarios are used into the SDP to optimize the new release policy for the next time steps. This routine is then repeated over the entire simulation period. Results are compared with those obtained by using SDP on historical inflow scenarios.

Carbon emission from global hydroelectric reservoirs revisited.

PubMed

Li, Siyue; Zhang, Quanfa

2014-12-01

Substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from hydropower reservoirs have been of great concerns recently, yet the significant carbon emitters of drawdown area and reservoir downstream (including spillways and turbines as well as river reaches below dams) have not been included in global carbon budget. Here, we revisit GHG emission from hydropower reservoirs by considering reservoir surface area, drawdown zone and reservoir downstream. Our estimates demonstrate around 301.3 Tg carbon dioxide (CO2)/year and 18.7 Tg methane (CH4)/year from global hydroelectric reservoirs, which are much higher than recent observations. The sum of drawdown and downstream emission, which is generally overlooked, represents 42 % CO2 and 67 % CH4 of the total emissions from hydropower reservoirs. Accordingly, the global average emissions from hydropower are estimated to be 92 g CO2/kWh and 5.7 g CH4/kWh. Nonetheless, global hydroelectricity could currently reduce approximate 2,351 Tg CO2eq/year with respect to fuel fossil plant alternative. The new findings show a substantial revision of carbon emission from the global hydropower reservoirs.

Quadrennial Technology Review 2015: Technology Assessments--Hydropower

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sam Baldwin, Gilbert Bindewald, Austin Brown, Charles Chen, Kerry Cheung, Corrie Clark, Joe Cresko,

Hydropower has provided reliable and flexible base and peaking power generation in the United States for more than a century, contributing on average 10.5% of cumulative U.S. power sector net generation over the past six and one-half decades (1949–2013). It is the nation’s largest source of renewable electricity, with 79 GW of generating assets and 22 GW of pumped-storage assets in service, with hydropower providing half of all U.S. renewable power-sector generation (50% in 2014). In addition to this capacity, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified greater than 80 GW of new hydropower resource potential: at least 5more » GW from rehabilitation and expansion of existing generating assets, up to 12 GW of potential at existing dams without power facilities, and over 60 GW of potential low-impact new development (LIND) in undeveloped stream reaches. However, despite this growth potential, hydropower capacity and production growth have stalled in recent years, with existing assets even experiencing decreases in capacity and production from lack of sustaining investments in infrastructure and increasing constraints on water use.« less

National hydroelectric power resources study. Preliminary inventory of hydropower resources. Volume 1. Pacific Northwest region

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1979-07-01

The preliminary inventory and analysis procedures provide a comprehensive assessment of the undeveloped hydroelectric power potential in the US and determines which sites merit more thorough investigation. Over 5400 existing structures have been identified as having the physical potential to add hydropower plants or increase hydropower output thereby increasing our present hydropower capacity from a total of 64,000 MW to 158,000 MW and our energy from 280,000 GWH to 503,000 GWH. While the physical potential for this increase is clearly available, some of these projects will undoubtedly not satisfy more-detailed economic analysis as well as the institutional and environmental criteriamore » which will be imposed upon them. Summary tables include estimates of the potential capacity and energy at each site in the inventory. In some cases, individual projects may be site alternatives to others in the same general location, when only one can be considered for hydropower development. The number of sites per state is identified, but specific information is included for only the sites in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington in this first volume.« less

Further Evidence for the Efficacy of an Evidence-Based, Small Group, Literacy Intervention Program for Young Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheldall, Kevin; Wheldall, Robyn; Madelaine, Alison; Reynolds, Meree; Arakelian, Sarah

2017-01-01

An earlier series of pilot studies and small-scale experimental studies had previously provided some evidence for the efficacy of a small group early literacy intervention program for young struggling readers. The present paper provides further evidence for efficacy based on a much larger sample of young, socially disadvantaged, at-risk readers.…

Environmentally Sound Small-Scale Water Projects. Guidelines for Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tillman, Gus

This manual is the second volume in a series of publications on community development programs. Guidelines are suggested for small-scale water projects that would benefit segments of the world's urban or rural poor. Strategies in project planning, implementation and evaluation are presented that emphasize environmental conservation and promote…

Small-scale multi-axial hybrid simulation of a shear-critical reinforced concrete frame

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadeghian, Vahid; Kwon, Oh-Sung; Vecchio, Frank

2017-10-01

This study presents a numerical multi-scale simulation framework which is extended to accommodate hybrid simulation (numerical-experimental integration). The framework is enhanced with a standardized data exchange format and connected to a generalized controller interface program which facilitates communication with various types of laboratory equipment and testing configurations. A small-scale experimental program was conducted using a six degree-of-freedom hydraulic testing equipment to verify the proposed framework and provide additional data for small-scale testing of shearcritical reinforced concrete structures. The specimens were tested in a multi-axial hybrid simulation manner under a reversed cyclic loading condition simulating earthquake forces. The physical models were 1/3.23-scale representations of a beam and two columns. A mixed-type modelling technique was employed to analyze the remainder of the structures. The hybrid simulation results were compared against those obtained from a large-scale test and finite element analyses. The study found that if precautions are taken in preparing model materials and if the shear-related mechanisms are accurately considered in the numerical model, small-scale hybrid simulations can adequately simulate the behaviour of shear-critical structures. Although the findings of the study are promising, to draw general conclusions additional test data are required.

Application of a Two-Dimensional Model of Hydrodynamics and Water Quality (CE-QUAL-W2) to Cordell Hull Reservoir, Tennessee

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-08-01

the four navigation projects on the Cumberland River. It houses a run-of- the-river hydropower facility with three hydroturbines capable of producing...a total of 100 MW. Releases from the structure are made primarily through the hydroturbines with a small amount of flow discharged through lockages...intake. The intakes for the hydroturbines are shown in Figure 3. These intakes spanned several layers vertically, and individual discharges for the

Optimizing multiple reliable forward contracts for reservoir allocation using multitime scale streamflow forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Mengqian; Lall, Upmanu; Robertson, Andrew W.; Cook, Edward

2017-03-01

Streamflow forecasts at multiple time scales provide a new opportunity for reservoir management to address competing objectives. Market instruments such as forward contracts with specified reliability are considered as a tool that may help address the perceived risk associated with the use of such forecasts in lieu of traditional operation and allocation strategies. A water allocation process that enables multiple contracts for water supply and hydropower production with different durations, while maintaining a prescribed level of flood risk reduction, is presented. The allocation process is supported by an optimization model that considers multitime scale ensemble forecasts of monthly streamflow and flood volume over the upcoming season and year, the desired reliability and pricing of proposed contracts for hydropower and water supply. It solves for the size of contracts at each reliability level that can be allocated for each future period, while meeting target end of period reservoir storage with a prescribed reliability. The contracts may be insurable, given that their reliability is verified through retrospective modeling. The process can allow reservoir operators to overcome their concerns as to the appropriate skill of probabilistic forecasts, while providing water users with short-term and long-term guarantees as to how much water or energy they may be allocated. An application of the optimization model to the Bhakra Dam, India, provides an illustration of the process. The issues of forecast skill and contract performance are examined. A field engagement of the idea is useful to develop a real-world perspective and needs a suitable institutional environment.

Integrated water and renewable energy management: the Acheloos-Peneios region case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koukouvinos, Antonios; Nikolopoulos, Dionysis; Efstratiadis, Andreas; Tegos, Aristotelis; Rozos, Evangelos; Papalexiou, Simon-Michael; Dimitriadis, Panayiotis; Markonis, Yiannis; Kossieris, Panayiotis; Tyralis, Christos; Karakatsanis, Georgios; Tzouka, Katerina; Christofides, Antonis; Karavokiros, George; Siskos, Alexandros; Mamassis, Nikos; Koutsoyiannis, Demetris

2015-04-01

Within the ongoing research project "Combined Renewable Systems for Sustainable Energy Development" (CRESSENDO), we have developed a novel stochastic simulation framework for optimal planning and management of large-scale hybrid renewable energy systems, in which hydropower plays the dominant role. The methodology and associated computer tools are tested in two major adjacent river basins in Greece (Acheloos, Peneios) extending over 15 500 km2 (12% of Greek territory). River Acheloos is characterized by very high runoff and holds ~40% of the installed hydropower capacity of Greece. On the other hand, the Thessaly plain drained by Peneios - a key agricultural region for the national economy - usually suffers from water scarcity and systematic environmental degradation. The two basins are interconnected through diversion projects, existing and planned, thus formulating a unique large-scale hydrosystem whose future has been the subject of a great controversy. The study area is viewed as a hypothetically closed, energy-autonomous, system, in order to evaluate the perspectives for sustainable development of its water and energy resources. In this context we seek an efficient configuration of the necessary hydraulic and renewable energy projects through integrated modelling of the water and energy balance. We investigate several scenarios of energy demand for domestic, industrial and agricultural use, assuming that part of the demand is fulfilled via wind and solar energy, while the excess or deficit of energy is regulated through large hydroelectric works that are equipped with pumping storage facilities. The overall goal is to examine under which conditions a fully renewable energy system can be technically and economically viable for such large spatial scale.

21st century Himalayan hydropower: Growing exposure to glacial lake outburst floods?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Worni, Raphael; Huggel, Christian; Stoffel, Markus; Korup, Oliver

2014-05-01

Primary energy demand in China and India has increased fivefold since 1980. To avoid power shortages and blackouts, the hydropower infrastructure in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region is seeing massive development, a strategy supported by the policy of the World Bank and in harmony with the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. The targeted investments in clean energy from water resources, however, may trigger far-reaching impacts to downstream communities given that hydropower projects are planned and constructed in close vicinity to glaciated areas. We hypothesize that the location of these new schemes may be subject to higher exposure to a broad portfolio of natural hazards that proliferate in the steep, dissected, and tectonically active topography of the Himalayas. Here we focus on the hazard from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), and offer an unprecedented regional analysis for the Hindu Kush-Himalaya orogen. We compiled a database of nearly 4,000 proglacial lakes that we mapped from satellite imagery; and focus on those as potential GLOF sources that are situated above several dozen planned and existing hydropower plants. We implemented a scenario-based flood-wave propagation model of hypothetic GLOFs, and compared thus simulated peak discharges with those of the local design floods at the power plants. Multiple model runs confirm earlier notions that GLOF discharge may exceed meteorological, i.e. monsoon-fed, flood peaks by at least an order of magnitude throughout the Hindu Kush-Himalaya. We further show that the current trend in hydropower development near glaciated areas may lead to a >15% increase of projects that may be impacted by future GLOFs. At the same time, the majority of the projects are to be sited where outburst flood modelling produces its maximum uncertainty, highlighting the problem of locating minimum risk sites for hydropower. Exposure to GLOFs is not uniformly distributed in the Himalayas, and is particularly high in rivers draining the Mt. Everest and Lulana regions of Nepal and Bhutan, respectively. Together with the dense, cascading sequence of hydropower stations along several river networks in these areas, the combination of GLOFs and artificial reservoirs in steep terrain may result in increasing threats to downstream communities. Hydropower stations are infrastructural investments with minimum design lives of several decades, and our results suggest that their planning should be orchestrated with projected changes in glacier response to future climate change. Our data underline the preponderance of glacial lakes in areas with high glacial retreat rates and a commensurate exposure of hydropower stations to GLOFs. To ensure sustainable water resources use at minimum risk implications for on-site downstream communities, potential changes in GLOF hazard should be taken seriously when planning hydropower stations in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya.

Climate change impact on the discharge in meso-scale catchments and consequences for the hydropower-production in Switzerland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rössler, Ole; Hänggi, Pascal; Köplin, Nina; Meyer, Rapahel; Schädler, Bruno; Weingartner, Rolf

2013-04-01

The potential effect of climate change on hydrology is the acceleration of the hydrological cycle that in turn will likely cause changes in the discharge regime. As a result, socio-economic systems (e.g., tourism, hydropower industry) may be drastically affected. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the effect of climate change on different hydrological components like mean and low-flow levels, and drought stress in mesoscale catchments of Switzerland. In terms of mean flows approx. 200 catchments in Switzerland were simulated for the reference period 1984-2005 using the hydrological model PREVAH and projection for near (2025-2046) and far future (2074-2095) are based on delta-change values of 10 ENSEMBLES regional climate models assuming A1B emission scenario (CH2011 climate scenario data sets). We found seven distinct response types of catchments, each exhibiting a characteristic annual cycle of hydrologic change. A general pattern observed for all catchments, is the clearly decreasing summer runoff. Hence, within a second analysis of future discharge a special focus was set on summer low flow in a selection of 29 catchments in the Swiss Midlands. Low flows are critical as they have great implications on water usage and biodiversity. We re-calibrated the hydrological model PREVAH with a focus on base-flow and gauged discharge and used the aforementioned climate data sets and simulation time periods. We found low flow situations to be very likely to increase in both, magnitude and duration, especially in central and western Switzerland plateau. At third, the drought stress potential was analyzed by simulating the soil moisture level under climate change conditions in a high mountain catchment. We used the distributed hydrological model WaSiM-ETH for this aspect as soil characteristics are much better represented in this model. Soil moisture in forests below 2000 m a.s.l. were found to be affected at most, which might have implication to their function as avalanche protection forests. However, we found high uncertainties related to the downscaling method applied. Finally, we analyzed the effect of changed discharge characteristics on the hydropower production by coupling the hydrological model BERNHYDRO with a hydropower management model. For the near future (until 2050), the results indicate that losses in the hydropower production during the summer can be compensated by benefit during winter. These different aspects of climate change impacts on the hydrosphere reveal a differentiated picture involving potentially threatened and widely unaffected catchments, hydrologic parameters and hydrologic constraints to the society.

Fishy Business: Response of Stream Fish Assemblages to Small Hydro-power Plant Induced Flow Alteration in the Western Ghats, Karnataka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, S. T.; Krishnaswamy, J.; Bhalla, R. S.

2017-12-01

Alteration of natural flow regimes is considered as a major threat to freshwater fish assemblages as it disturbs the water quality and micro-habitat features of rivers. Small hydro-power (SHP), which is being promoted as a clean and green substitute for large hydro-power generation, alters the natural flow regime of head-water streams by flow diversion and regulation. The effects of altered flow regime on tropical stream fish assemblages, driven by seasonality induced perturbations to water quality and microhabitat parameters are largely understudied. My study examined the potential consequences of flow alteration by SHPs on fish assemblages in two tributaries of the west-flowing Yettinahole River which flows through the reserved forests of Sakleshpur in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. The flow in one of the tributaries followed natural flow regime while the other comprised three regimes: a near-natural flow regime above the dam, rapidly varying discharge below the dam and a dewatered regime caused by flow diversion. The study found that the altered flow regime differed from natural flow regime in terms of water quality, microhabitat heterogeneity and fish assemblage response, each indicative of the type of flow alteration. Fish assemblage in the natural flow regime was characterized by a higher catch per site, a strong association of endemic and trophic specialist species. The flow regime above the dam was found to mimic some components of the natural flow regime, both ecological and environmental. Non endemic, generalist and pool tolerant species were associated with the dewatered regime. There was a lack of strong species-regime association and an overall low catch per site for the flow regulated regime below the dam. This study highlights the consequences of altered flows on the composition of freshwater fish assemblages and portrays the potential of freshwater fish as indicators of the degree and extent of flow alteration. The study recommends the need for maintaining continuous flow data records to model ecological data with hydrological measurements. In the light of rapid SHP development, the study also suggests environmental / cumulative impact assessments of SHPs on the river basin.

The Use of Quality Control and Data Mining Techniques for Monitoring Scaled Scores: An Overview. Research Report. ETS RR-12-20

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Davier, Alina A.

2012-01-01

Maintaining comparability of test scores is a major challenge faced by testing programs that have almost continuous administrations. Among the potential problems are scale drift and rapid accumulation of errors. Many standard quality control techniques for testing programs, which can effectively detect and address scale drift for small numbers of…

Results of Small-scale Solid Rocket Combustion Simulator testing at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldberg, Benjamin E.; Cook, Jerry

1993-01-01

The Small-scale Solid Rocket Combustion Simulator (SSRCS) program was established at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and used a government/industry team consisting of Hercules Aerospace Corporation, Aerotherm Corporation, United Technology Chemical Systems Division, Thiokol Corporation and MSFC personnel to study the feasibility of simulating the combustion species, temperatures and flow fields of a conventional solid rocket motor (SRM) with a versatile simulator system. The SSRCS design is based on hybrid rocket motor principles. The simulator uses a solid fuel and a gaseous oxidizer. Verification of the feasibility of a SSRCS system as a test bed was completed using flow field and system analyses, as well as empirical test data. A total of 27 hot firings of a subscale SSRCS motor were conducted at MSFC. Testing of the Small-scale SSRCS program was completed in October 1992. This paper, a compilation of reports from the above team members and additional analysis of the instrumentation results, will discuss the final results of the analyses and test programs.

Classification of US hydropower dams by their modes of operation

DOE PAGES

McManamay, Ryan A.; Oigbokie, II, Clement O.; Kao, Shih -Chieh; ...

2016-02-19

A key challenge to understanding ecohydrologic responses to dam regulation is the absence of a universally transferable classification framework for how dams operate. In the present paper, we develop a classification system to organize the modes of operation (MOPs) for U.S. hydropower dams and powerplants. To determine the full diversity of MOPs, we mined federal documents, open-access data repositories, and internet sources. W then used CART classification trees to predict MOPs based on physical characteristics, regulation, and project generation. Finally, we evaluated how much variation MOPs explained in sub-daily discharge patterns for stream gages downstream of hydropower dams. After reviewingmore » information for 721 dams and 597 power plants, we developed a 2-tier hierarchical classification based on 1) the storage and control of flows to powerplants, and 2) the presence of a diversion around the natural stream bed. This resulted in nine tier-1 MOPs representing a continuum of operations from strictly peaking, to reregulating, to run-of-river, and two tier-2 MOPs, representing diversion and integral dam-powerhouse configurations. Although MOPs differed in physical characteristics and energy production, classification trees had low accuracies (<62%), which suggested accurate evaluations of MOPs may require individual attention. MOPs and dam storage explained 20% of the variation in downstream subdaily flow characteristics and showed consistent alterations in subdaily flow patterns from reference streams. Lastly, this standardized classification scheme is important for future research including estimating reservoir operations for large-scale hydrologic models and evaluating project economics, environmental impacts, and mitigation.« less

Classification of US hydropower dams by their modes of operation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManamay, Ryan A.; Oigbokie, II, Clement O.; Kao, Shih -Chieh

A key challenge to understanding ecohydrologic responses to dam regulation is the absence of a universally transferable classification framework for how dams operate. In the present paper, we develop a classification system to organize the modes of operation (MOPs) for U.S. hydropower dams and powerplants. To determine the full diversity of MOPs, we mined federal documents, open-access data repositories, and internet sources. W then used CART classification trees to predict MOPs based on physical characteristics, regulation, and project generation. Finally, we evaluated how much variation MOPs explained in sub-daily discharge patterns for stream gages downstream of hydropower dams. After reviewingmore » information for 721 dams and 597 power plants, we developed a 2-tier hierarchical classification based on 1) the storage and control of flows to powerplants, and 2) the presence of a diversion around the natural stream bed. This resulted in nine tier-1 MOPs representing a continuum of operations from strictly peaking, to reregulating, to run-of-river, and two tier-2 MOPs, representing diversion and integral dam-powerhouse configurations. Although MOPs differed in physical characteristics and energy production, classification trees had low accuracies (<62%), which suggested accurate evaluations of MOPs may require individual attention. MOPs and dam storage explained 20% of the variation in downstream subdaily flow characteristics and showed consistent alterations in subdaily flow patterns from reference streams. Lastly, this standardized classification scheme is important for future research including estimating reservoir operations for large-scale hydrologic models and evaluating project economics, environmental impacts, and mitigation.« less

Messiah College Biodiesel Fuel Generation Project Final Technical Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zummo, Michael M; Munson, J; Derr, A

Many obvious and significant concerns arise when considering the concept of small-scale biodiesel production. Does the fuel produced meet the stringent requirements set by the commercial biodiesel industry? Is the process safe? How are small-scale producers collecting and transporting waste vegetable oil? How is waste from the biodiesel production process handled by small-scale producers? These concerns and many others were the focus of the research preformed in the Messiah College Biodiesel Fuel Generation project over the last three years. This project was a unique research program in which undergraduate engineering students at Messiah College set out to research the feasibilitymore » of small-biodiesel production for application on a campus of approximately 3000 students. This Department of Energy (DOE) funded research program developed out of almost a decade of small-scale biodiesel research and development work performed by students at Messiah College. Over the course of the last three years the research team focused on four key areas related to small-scale biodiesel production: Quality Testing and Assurance, Process and Processor Research, Process and Processor Development, and Community Education. The objectives for the Messiah College Biodiesel Fuel Generation Project included the following: 1. Preparing a laboratory facility for the development and optimization of processors and processes, ASTM quality assurance, and performance testing of biodiesel fuels. 2. Developing scalable processor and process designs suitable for ASTM certifiable small-scale biodiesel production, with the goals of cost reduction and increased quality. 3. Conduct research into biodiesel process improvement and cost optimization using various biodiesel feedstocks and production ingredients.« less

Final Report of the HyPER Harvester Project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Prasad, Nadipuram R; Ranade, Satishkuma J

The HyPER Harvester Project resulted in the first full­scale design, fabrication and testing of two vertical­axis harvester prototypes at the Elephant Butte Irrigation District Drop 8 Station in Southern New Mexico. The design, followed by fabrication, and deployment clearly demonstrated the feasibility to manufacture and deploy harvester prototypes at low cost. While several issues common to irrigation canal systems have to be overcome, the electromechanical performance of the integrated turbine­generator system demonstrated proof­of­concept. Proof­of­concept includes 1) feasibility for using additive manufacturing techniques to fabricate Carbon­composite turbine­generator components at low cost, 2) ease of transportation and deployment, and 3) the harvestermore » performance. The benefits of modularity were demonstrated in terms of rapid deployment at the Drop 8 Station. Scalability and adaptability were proven in terms of the custom­fitting characteristics that enabled rapid deployment. While keeping the same shape and form, the harvester can be easily adapted to any drop environment. Self­supporting ability makes the harvester design minimally intrusive on existing structures. There are two technical challenges ahead that have to be addressed. Irregular flow patterns in canal flow induce vertical oscillations due to pressure change across the impeller. Despite the nosecone in conventional Kaplan turbine design that ordinarily dampens oscillations, an effective coupling design is required to eliminate the hydrodynamic effect on the generating system. In arid areas where tumbleweed is present, a robust design to prevent trash entering the drop is required. The compact shape and form have an aesthetic appearance and appear to illustrate an environmentally friendly attribute. The systems­engineered design enables rapid manufacturing and assembly of desired size units that can be deployed at sites along U.S. waterways as small hydropower plants. There is worldwide potential for this technology to provide sustainable hydropower to communities isolated from grid­ supply.« less

Sub-seasonal predictability of water scarcity at global and local scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wanders, N.; Wada, Y.; Wood, E. F.

2016-12-01

Forecasting the water demand and availability for agriculture and energy production has been neglected in previous research, partly due to the fact that most large-scale hydrological models lack the skill to forecast human water demands at sub-seasonal time scale. We study the potential of a sub-seasonal water scarcity forecasting system for improved water management decision making and improved estimates of water demand and availability. We have generated 32 years of global sub-seasonal multi-model water availability, demand and scarcity forecasts. The quality of the forecasts is compared to a reference forecast derived from resampling historic weather observations. The newly developed system has been evaluated for both the global scale and in a real-time local application in the Sacramento valley for the Trinity, Shasta and Oroville reservoirs, where the water demand for agriculture and hydropower is high. On the global scale we find that the reference forecast shows high initial forecast skill (up to 8 months) for water scarcity in the eastern US, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Adding dynamical sub-seasonal forecasts results in a clear improvement for most regions in the world, increasing the forecasts' lead time by 2 or more months on average. The strongest improvements are found in the US, Brazil, Central Asia and Australia. For the Sacramento valley we can accurately predict anomalies in the reservoir inflow, hydropower potential and the downstream irrigation water demand 6 months in advance. This allow us to forecast potential water scarcity in the Sacramento valley and adjust the reservoir management to prevent deficits in energy or irrigation water availability. The newly developed forecast system shows that it is possible to reduce the vulnerability to upcoming water scarcity events and allows optimization of the distribution of the available water between the agricultural and energy sector half a year in advance.

Hydropower Generation Performance Testing at Plants in Thailand and Laos

DOE PAGES

Kern, Jamie; Hadjerioua, Boualem; Christian, Mark H.; ...

2017-04-01

An operational assessment of four hydropower plants in Southeast Asia revealed that gains in both energy production and water conservation could be achieved with little monetary investment through operational optimization efforts.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software 2003

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2003-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2000-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

Hydropower Generation Performance Testing at Plants in Thailand and Laos

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kern, Jamie; Hadjerioua, Boualem; Christian, Mark H.

An operational assessment of four hydropower plants in Southeast Asia revealed that gains in both energy production and water conservation could be achieved with little monetary investment through operational optimization efforts.

Organizing Environmental Flow Frameworks to Meet Hydropower Mitigation Needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McManamay, Ryan A.; Brewer, Shannon K.; Jager, Henriette I.; Troia, Matthew J.

2016-09-01

The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing water needs for ecosystems, energy production, and other human uses. Thus, stakeholders must identify a prioritized subset of flow prescriptions that meet ecological objectives in light of realistic constraints. Yet, isolating aspects of flow regimes to restore downstream of hydropower facilities is among the greatest challenges of environmental flow science due, in part, to the sheer volume of available environmental flow tools in conjunction with complex negotiation-based regulatory procedures. Herein, we propose an organizational framework that structures information and existing flow paradigms into a staged process that assists stakeholders in implementing environmental flows for hydropower facilities. The framework identifies areas where regulations fall short of the needed scientific process, and provide suggestions for stakeholders to ameliorate those situations through advanced preparation. We highlight the strengths of existing flow paradigms in their application to hydropower settings and suggest when and where tools are most applicable. Our suggested framework increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-flow implementation process by rapidly establishing a knowledge base and decreasing uncertainty so more time can be devoted to filling knowledge gaps. Lastly, the framework provides the structure for a coordinated research agenda to further the science of environmental flows related to hydropower environments.

Organizing environmental flow frameworks to meet hydropower mitigation needs

USGS Publications Warehouse

McManamay, Ryan A.; Brewer, Shannon K.; Jager, Henriette; Troia, Matthew J.

2016-01-01

The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing water needs for ecosystems, energy production, and other human uses. Thus, stakeholders must identify a prioritized subset of flow prescriptions that meet ecological objectives in light of realistic constraints. Yet, isolating aspects of flow regimes to restore downstream of hydropower facilities is among the greatest challenges of environmental flow science due, in part, to the sheer volume of available environmental flow tools in conjunction with complex negotiation-based regulatory procedures. Herein, we propose an organizational framework that structures information and existing flow paradigms into a staged process that assists stakeholders in implementing environmental flows for hydropower facilities. The framework identifies areas where regulations fall short of the needed scientific process, and provide suggestions for stakeholders to ameliorate those situations through advanced preparation. We highlight the strengths of existing flow paradigms in their application to hydropower settings and suggest when and where tools are most applicable. Our suggested framework increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-flow implementation process by rapidly establishing a knowledge base and decreasing uncertainty so more time can be devoted to filling knowledge gaps. Lastly, the framework provides the structure for a coordinated research agenda to further the science of environmental flows related to hydropower environments.

Improved evaluation of the blue water footprint from hydropower in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, G.; Gao, H.

2017-12-01

As the world's largest source of renewable energy, hydropower contributes 16.6% of the electricity production in the world. Even though it produces no waste, hydropower exhausts a considerable amount of water mostly through evaporation from the extended surface areas of the manmade lakes. The water footprint of hydropower becomes even larger with rising temperatures. To assist with the precise management of both water resources and energy production in the Contiguous United States (CONUS), 82 major dams—all with a primary purpose of producing hydroelectric power—were evaluated in terms of their blue water footprints. These dams account for 21% of the entire hydropower generation in the CONUS. Reservoir evaporation is calculated using state-of-the-art reservoir surface area and evaporation rate information. Instead of using fixed surface areas for the reservoirs—a practice which is adopted by virtually all other studies (and generally leads to over-or-under estimations)—time-variant surface areas were generated from Landsat imageries archived on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Additionally, evaporation rates were calculated using an equilibrium method that incorporates the heat storage effects of the reservoirs. Results show that water consumption from hydropower is large and non-negligible. Furthermore, the differences of the blue water footprints among the dams studied are also significant. The results of this study can benefit the evaluation of existing dams (e.g. recommendation for dam removal) and the planning of future hydroelectric dams.

Organizing Environmental Flow Frameworks to Meet Hydropower Mitigation Needs.

PubMed

McManamay, Ryan A; Brewer, Shannon K; Jager, Henriette I; Troia, Matthew J

2016-09-01

The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing water needs for ecosystems, energy production, and other human uses. Thus, stakeholders must identify a prioritized subset of flow prescriptions that meet ecological objectives in light of realistic constraints. Yet, isolating aspects of flow regimes to restore downstream of hydropower facilities is among the greatest challenges of environmental flow science due, in part, to the sheer volume of available environmental flow tools in conjunction with complex negotiation-based regulatory procedures. Herein, we propose an organizational framework that structures information and existing flow paradigms into a staged process that assists stakeholders in implementing environmental flows for hydropower facilities. The framework identifies areas where regulations fall short of the needed scientific process, and provide suggestions for stakeholders to ameliorate those situations through advanced preparation. We highlight the strengths of existing flow paradigms in their application to hydropower settings and suggest when and where tools are most applicable. Our suggested framework increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-flow implementation process by rapidly establishing a knowledge base and decreasing uncertainty so more time can be devoted to filling knowledge gaps. Lastly, the framework provides the structure for a coordinated research agenda to further the science of environmental flows related to hydropower environments.

Exploring the impact of co-varying water availability and energy price on productivity and profitability of Alpine hydropower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anghileri, Daniela; Botter, Martina; Castelletti, Andrea; Burlando, Paolo

2016-04-01

Alpine hydropower systems are experiencing dramatic changes both from the point of view of hydrological conditions, e.g., water availability and frequency of extremes events, and of energy market conditions, e.g., partial or total liberalization of the market and increasing share of renewable power sources. Scientific literature has, so far, mostly focused on the analysis of climate change impacts and associated uncertainty on hydropower operation, underlooking the consequences that socio-economic changes, e.g., energy demand and/or price changes, can have on hydropower productivity and profitability. In this work, we analyse how hydropower reservoir operation is affected by changes in both water availability and energy price. We consider stochastically downscaled climate change scenarios of precipitation and temperature to simulate reservoir inflows using a physically explicit hydrological model. We consider different scenarios of energy demand and generation mix to simulate energy prices using an electricity market model, which includes different generation sources, demand sinks, and features of the transmission lines. We then use Multi-Objective optimization techniques to design the operation of hydropower reservoirs for different purposes, e.g. maximization of revenue and/or energy production. The objective of the work is to assess how the tradeoffs between the multiple operating objectives evolve under different co-varying climate change and socio-economic scenarios and to assess the adaptive capacity of the system. The modeling framework is tested on the real-world case study of the Mattmark reservoir in Switzerland.

Stories of Success and Struggle: California's Small Farms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warnert, Jeannette; McCue, Susan

1999-01-01

Describes the University of California's Small Farms Program, which aims to support the sustainability of small farms by providing small-scale farmers with state-of-the-art information, research, support networks, and technical assistance in technology adoption and decision making. Profiles four successful small farms that grow strawberries,…

Integrating Disciplines, Sectors, and Societies to Improve the Definition and Implementation of Environmental Flows for Dammed Amazonian Rivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaplan, D. A.; Livino, A.; Arias, M. E.; Crouch, T. D.; Anderson, E.; Marques, E.; Dutka-Gianelli, J.

2017-12-01

The Amazon River watershed is the world's largest river basin and provides US$30 billion/yr in ecosystem services to local populations, national societies, and humanity at large. The Amazon is also a relatively untapped source of hydroelectricity for Latin America, and construction of >30 large hydroelectric dams and >170 small dams is currently underway. Hydropower development will have a cascade of physical, ecological, and social effects at local to global scales. While Brazil has well-defined environmental impact assessment and mitigation programs, these efforts often fail to integrate data and knowledge across disciplines, sectors, and societies throughout the dam planning process. Resulting failures of science, policy, and management have had widespread environmental, economic, and social consequences, highlighting the need for an improved theoretical and practical framework for understanding the impacts of Amazon dams and guiding improved management that respects the needs and knowledge of diverse set of stakeholders. We present a conceptual framework that links four central goals: 1) connecting research in different disciplines (interdisciplinarity); 2) incorporating new knowledge into decision making (adaptive management); 3) including perspectives and participation of non-academic participants in knowledge generation (transdisciplinarity); and 4) extending the idea of environmental flows ("how much water does a river need?") to better consider human uses and users through the concept of fluvial anthropology ("how much water does a society need?"). We use this framework to identify opportunities for improved integration strategies within the (Brazilian) hydroelectric power plant planning and implementation "lifecycle." We applied this approach to the contentious Belo Monte dam, where compliance with regulatory requirements, including monitoring for environmental flows, exemplifies the opportunity for applying adaptive management, but also highlights an urgent need for much improved communication with and participation of affected communities.

Small Scale Beekeeping. Appropriate Technologies for Development. Manual M-17.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, Curtis

This manual is designed to assist Peace Corps volunteers in the development and implementation of small-scale beekeeping programs as a tool for development. Addressed in the individual chapters are bees and humans; project planning; the types and habits of bees; the essence of beekeeping; bee space and beehives; intermediate technology beekeeping;…

The Effectiveness of Private School Franchises in Chile's National Voucher Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elacqua, Gregory; Contreras, Dante; Salazar, Felipe; Santos, Humberto

2011-01-01

There is persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more effective…

Environmentally Sound Small-Scale Energy Projects. Guidelines for Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bassan, Elizabeth Ann; Wood, Timothy S., Ed.

This manual is the fourth volume in a series of publications that provide information for the planning of environmentally sound small-scale projects. Programs that aim to protect the renewable natural resources that supply most of the energy used in developing nations are suggested. Considerations are made for physical environmental factors as…

Sensitivity of power system operations to projected changes in water availability due to climate change: the Western U.S. case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voisin, N.; Macknick, J.; Fu, T.; O'Connell, M.; Zhou, T.; Brinkman, G.

2017-12-01

Water resources provide multiple critical services to the electrical grid through hydropower technologies, from generation to regulation of the electric grid (frequency, capacity reserve). Water resources can also represent vulnerabilities to the electric grid, as hydropower and thermo-electric facilities require water for operations. In the Western U.S., hydropower and thermo-electric plants that rely on fresh surface water represent 67% of the generating capacity. Prior studies have looked at the impact of change in water availability under future climate conditions on expected generating capacity in the Western U.S., but have not evaluated operational risks or changes resulting from climate. In this study, we systematically assess the impact of change in water availability and air temperatures on power operations, i.e. we take into account the different grid services that water resources can provide to the electric grid (generation, regulation) in the system-level context of inter-regional coordination through the electric transmission network. We leverage the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) hydrology simulations under historical and future climate conditions, and force the large scale river routing- water management model MOSART-WM along with 2010-level sectoral water demands. Changes in monthly hydropower potential generation (including generation and reserves), as well as monthly generation capacity of thermo-electric plants are derived for each power plant in the Western U.S. electric grid. We then utilize the PLEXOS electricity production cost model to optimize power system dispatch and cost decisions for the 2010 infrastructure under 100 years of historical and future (2050 horizon) hydroclimate conditions. We use economic metrics as well as operational metrics such as generation portfolio, emissions, and reserve margins to assess the changes in power system operations between historical and future normal and extreme water availability conditions. We provide insight on how this information can be used to support resource adequacy and grid expansion studies over the Western U.S. in the context of inter-annual variability and climate change.

Modeling Alpine hydropower reservoirs management to study the water-energy nexus under change.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castelletti, A.; Giuliani, M.; Fumagalli, E.; Weber, E.

2014-12-01

Climate change and growing population are expected to severely affect freshwater availability by the end of 21th century. Many river basins, especially in the Mediterranean region, are likely to become more prone to periods of reduced water supply, risking considerable impacts on the society, the environment, and the economy, thus emphasizing the need to rethink the way water resources are distributed, managed, and used at the regional and river basin scale. This paradigm shift will be essential to cope with the undergoing global change, characterized by growing water demands and by increasingly uncertain hydrologic regimes. Most of the literature traditionally focused on predicting the impacts of climate change on water resources, while our understanding of the human footprint on the hydrological cycle is limited. For example, changes in the operation of the Alpine hydropower reservoirs induced by socio-economic drivers (e.g., development of renewable energy) were already observed over the last few years and produced relevant impacts on multiple water uses due to the altered distribution of water volumes in time and space. Modeling human decisions as well as the links between society and environmental systems becomes key to develop reliable projections on the co-evolution of the coupled human-water systems and deliver robust adaptation strategies This work contributes a preliminary model-based analysis of the behaviour of hydropower operators under changing energy market and climate conditions. The proposed approach is developed for the San Giacomo-Cancano reservoir system, Italy. The identification of the current operating policy is supported by input variable selection methods to select the most relevant hydrological and market based drivers to explain the observed release time series.. The identified model is then simulated under a set of future scenarios, accounting for both climate and socio-economic change (e.g. expansion of the electric vehicle sector, load balancing from renewable energy), to eventually estimate the impacts on the multi-sector services involved (i.e., hydropower, flood protection, irrigation supply). Preliminary results show that the magnitude of the socio-economic change impacts is comparable with the one induced by climate change.

Hydropower licensing and evolving climate: climate knowledge to support risk assessment for long-term infrastructure decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ray, A. J.; Walker, S. H.; Trainor, S. F.; Cherry, J. E.

2014-12-01

This presentation focuses on linking climate knowledge to the complicated decision process for hydropower dam licensing, and the affected parties involved in that process. The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issues of licenses for nonfederal hydroelectric operations, typically 30-50 year licenses, and longer infrastructure lifespan, a similar time frame as the anticipated risks of changing climate and hydrology. Resources managed by other federal and state agencies such as the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service may be affected by new or re-licensed projects. The federal Integrated Licensing Process gives the opportunity for affected parties to recommend issues for consultative investigation and possible mitigation, such as impacts to downstream fisheries. New or re-licensed projects have the potential to "pre-adapt" by considering and incorporating risks of climate change into their planned operations as license terms and conditions. Hundreds of hydropower facilities will be up for relicensing in the coming years (over 100 in the western Sierra Nevada alone, and large-scale water projects such as the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline), as well as proposed new dams such as the Susitna project in Alaska. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive guidance on delivering climate analysis to support understanding of risks of hydropower projects to other affected resources, and decisions on licensing. While each project will have a specific context, many of the questions will be similar. We also will discuss best practices for the use of climate science in water project planning and management, and how creating the best and most appropriate science is also still a developing art. We will discuss the potential reliability of that science for consideration in long term planning, licensing, and mitigation planning for those projects. For science to be "actionable," that science must be understood and accepted by the potential users. This process is a negotiation, with climate scientists needing to understand the concerns of users and respond, and users developing a better understanding of the state of climate science in order to make an informed choice. We will also discuss what is needed to streamline providing that analysis for the many re-licensing decisions expected in the upcoming years.

The invisibility of fisheries in the process of hydropower development across the Amazon.

PubMed

Doria, Carolina Rodrigues da Costa; Athayde, Simone; Marques, Elineide E; Lima, Maria Alice Leite; Dutka-Gianelli, Jynessa; Ruffino, Mauro Luis; Kaplan, David; Freitas, Carlos E C; Isaac, Victoria N

2018-05-01

We analyze the invisibility of fisheries and inadequacy of fishers' participation in the process of hydropower development in the Amazon, focusing on gaps between legally mandated and actual outcomes. Using Ostrom's institutional design principles for assessing common-pool resource management, we selected five case studies from Brazilian Amazonian watersheds to conduct an exploratory comparative case-study analysis. We identify similar problems across basins, including deficiencies in the dam licensing process; critical data gaps; inadequate stakeholder participation; violation of human rights; neglect of fishers' knowledge; lack of organization and representation by fishers' groups; and lack of governmental structure and capacity to manage dam construction activities or support fishers after dam construction. Fishers have generally been marginalized or excluded from decision-making regarding planning, construction, mitigation, compensation, and monitoring of the social-ecological impacts of hydroelectric dams. Addressing these deficiencies will require concerted investments and efforts by dam developers, government agencies and civil society, and the promotion of inter-sectorial dialogue and cross-scale participatory planning and decision-making that includes fishers and their associations.

River flow availability for environmental flow allocation downstream of hydropower facilities in the Kafue Basin of Zambia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalumba, Mulenga; Nyirenda, Edwin

2017-12-01

The Government of the Republic Zambia (GRZ) will install a new hydropower station Kafue Gorge Lower downstream of the existing Kafue Gorge Station (KGS) and plans to start operating the Itezhi-Tezhi (ITT) hydropower facility in the Kafue Basin. The Basin has significant biodiversity hot spots such as the Luangwa National park and Kafue Flats. It is described as a Man-Biosphere reserve and the National Park is a designated World Heritage Site hosting a variety of wildlife species. All these natural reserves demand special protection, and environmental flow requirements (e-flows) have been identified as a necessary need to preserve these ecosystems. Implementation of e-flows is therefore a priority as Zambia considers to install more hydropower facilities. However before allocation of e-flows, it is necessary to first assess the river flow available for allocation at existing hydropower stations in the Kafue Basin. The river flow availability in the basin was checked by assessing the variability in low and high flows since the timing, frequency and duration of extreme droughts and floods (caused by low and high flows) are all important hydrological characteristics of a flow regime that affects e-flows. The river flows for a 41 year monthly time series data (1973-2014) were used to extract independent low and high flows using the Water Engineering Time Series Processing Tool (WETSPRO). The low and high flows were used to construct cumulative frequency distribution curves that were compared and analysed to show their variation over a long period. A water balance of each hydropower station was used to check the river flow allocation aspect by comparing the calculated water balance outflow (river flow) with the observed river flow, the hydropower and consumptive water rights downstream of each hydropower station. In drought periods about 50-100 m3/s of riverflow is available or discharged at both ITT and KGS stations while as in extreme flood events about 1300-1500 m3/s of riverflow is available. There is river flow available in the wet and dry seasons for e-flow allocation at ITT. On average per month 25 m3/s is allocated for e-flows at ITT for downstream purposes. On the other hand, it may be impossible to implement e-flows at KGS with the limited available outflow (river flow). The available river flow from ITT plays a very vital role in satisfying the current hydropower generating capacity at KGS. Therefore, the operations of KGS heavily depends on the available outflow (river flow) from ITT.

Making a Difference Through Engineer Capacity Building in Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-22

expense is 10 percent in Africa whereas in China energy it is only 3 percent.37 A lack of transportation infrastructure in Africa means that businesses...Africa. In 2012, China committed to provide $20 billion in loans for agriculture and infrastructure development. While this level of aid is roughly the...using wind, solar, hydropower, natural gas, and geothermal sources. This program is being executed in six sub-Saharan African nations. They are

Thayer Lake Hydropower Development -- Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matousek, Mark

The Thayer Lake Hydropower Development (THLD) has been under study since the late 1970’s as Angoon explored opportunities to provide lower cost renewable power to the Community and avoid the high cost of diesel generation. Kootznoowoo Inc. (Kootznoowoo), the tribal corporation for Angoon’s current and past residents, was provided the rights by Congress to develop a hydropower project within the Admiralty Island National Monument. This grant (DE-EE0002504) by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Indian Energy and a matching grant from the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) were provided to Kootznoowoo to enable the design, engineering and permitting of thismore » hydropower project on Thayer Creek. Prior to the grant, the USFS had performed a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) and issued a Record of Decision (ROD) in 2009 for a 1.2 MW hydropower project on Thayer Creek that would Angoon’s needs with substantial excess capacity for growth. Kootznoowoo hired Alaska Power & Telephone (AP&T) in 2013 to manage this project and oversee its development. AP&T and its subcontractors under Kootznoowoo’s guidance performed several activities, aligned with the task plan defined in the grant.« less

Small Hydropower in Latvia and Intellectualization of its Operating Systems / Par Mazo HIDROENERĢĒTIKU LATVIJĀ un TĀS Staciju VADĪBAS SISTĒMAS INTELEKTUALIZĀCIJU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahnitko, A.; Gerhards, J.; Linkevics, O.; Varfolomejeva, R.; Umbrasko, I.

2013-12-01

The authors estimate the potential for power generation from water resources of small and medium-sized rivers, which are abundant in Latvia. They propose the algorithm for optimal operation of a small-scale hydropower plant (SHPP) at the chosen optimality criterion in view of the plant's participation in the market. The choice of SHPP optimization algorithm is made based on two mathematical programming methods - dynamic and generalized reduced gradient ones. Approbation of the algorithm is illustrated by an example of optimized SHPP operation. Darbā analizētas tradicionālo un pieejamo vietējo atjaunojamo energoresursu - mazo un vidējo upju hidroresursa izmantošanas iespējas Latvijas enerģētikā. Tiek sniegts faktiskais materiāls šajā jautājumā, kas iegūts, balstoties uz oficiālos avotos publicētiem citu autoru iepriekš veiktajiem pētījumiem. Tiek atzīmēts, ka teritoriju, kas atrodas mazo upju tuvumā un nav ietvertas centralizētās elektroapgādes sistēmā, saimnieciskā apgūšana rada apstākļus patērētāju stimulēšanai izmantot autonomus vietējos energoresursus, ieskaitot hidroenerģiju, izmantojošas mazas jaudas energoiekārtas. Atjaunojamās enerģijas tehnoloģiju un iekārtu pastāvīga attīstība un pilnveidošanās veicinās mazo upju plūsmas izmantošanas elektroenerģijas ražošanas efektivitātes paaugstināšanos. Mūsdienu enerģētikas attīstības koncepcija, kas balstīta uz viedo tīklu (smart grids) izveidi, ļauj paaugstināt mazās hidroenerģētikas darbības efektivitāti, integrējot to elektroenerģētiskajā sistēmā. Mazo hidroelektrostaciju (MHES) darbības vadības sistēmas intelektualizācijas pamatā jābūt kompleksam algoritmam un programmām, kas ļauj tiešsaistes (online) režīmā nodrošināt izdevīgu MHES darbības grafiku (režīmu) maksimālā ienākuma gūšanai, balstoties uz zināmu elektroenerģijas cenas prognozi attiecīgajam laika periodam (diennaktij). MHES darbības optimizācijas algoritma, kas pēc būtības ir tās vadības pamats, izstrāde tiek veikta, balstoties uz klasiskās matemātiskas programmēšanas metodes - dinamiskās programmēšanas metodi un vispārināto reducēto gradienta metodi. Izstrādājot programmu kodus, kas realizē autonomā režīmā strādājošas MHES optimizācijas algoritmu, nepieciešams izmantot speciālas aprēķinu procedūras, kas ir adaptīvas pret konkrētiem MHES ūdens spiediena ierobežojumiem. Algoritma aprobācija veikta uz konkrētas MHES režīma optimizācijas piemēra.

Structural Stability Monitoring of a Physical Model Test on an Underground Cavern Group during Deep Excavations Using FBG Sensors.

PubMed

Li, Yong; Wang, Hanpeng; Zhu, Weishen; Li, Shucai; Liu, Jian

2015-08-31

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are comprehensively recognized as a structural stability monitoring device for all kinds of geo-materials by either embedding into or bonding onto the structural entities. The physical model in geotechnical engineering, which could accurately simulate the construction processes and the effects on the stability of underground caverns on the basis of satisfying the similarity principles, is an actual physical entity. Using a physical model test of underground caverns in Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station, FBG sensors were used to determine how to model the small displacements of some key monitoring points in the large-scale physical model during excavation. In the process of building the test specimen, it is most successful to embed FBG sensors in the physical model through making an opening and adding some quick-set silicon. The experimental results show that the FBG sensor has higher measuring accuracy than other conventional sensors like electrical resistance strain gages and extensometers. The experimental results are also in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. In conclusion, FBG sensors could effectively measure small displacements of monitoring points in the whole process of the physical model test. The experimental results reveal the deformation and failure characteristics of the surrounding rock mass and make some guidance for the in situ engineering construction.

Structural Stability Monitoring of a Physical Model Test on an Underground Cavern Group during Deep Excavations Using FBG Sensors

PubMed Central

Li, Yong; Wang, Hanpeng; Zhu, Weishen; Li, Shucai; Liu, Jian

2015-01-01

Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are comprehensively recognized as a structural stability monitoring device for all kinds of geo-materials by either embedding into or bonding onto the structural entities. The physical model in geotechnical engineering, which could accurately simulate the construction processes and the effects on the stability of underground caverns on the basis of satisfying the similarity principles, is an actual physical entity. Using a physical model test of underground caverns in Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station, FBG sensors were used to determine how to model the small displacements of some key monitoring points in the large-scale physical model during excavation. In the process of building the test specimen, it is most successful to embed FBG sensors in the physical model through making an opening and adding some quick-set silicon. The experimental results show that the FBG sensor has higher measuring accuracy than other conventional sensors like electrical resistance strain gages and extensometers. The experimental results are also in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. In conclusion, FBG sensors could effectively measure small displacements of monitoring points in the whole process of the physical model test. The experimental results reveal the deformation and failure characteristics of the surrounding rock mass and make some guidance for the in situ engineering construction. PMID:26404287

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.63

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2003-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.64

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2003-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.65

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2008-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2003-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.19

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2008-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

HOMER® Energy Modeling Software V2.67

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lambert, Tom

2008-12-31

The HOMER® energy modeling software is a tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems, which contain a mix of conventional generators, cogeneration, wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, hydropower, batteries, fuel cells, hydropower, biomass and other inputs.

Advanced Commercial Buildings Initiative Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roberts, Sydney G.

The Southface Advanced Commercial Buildings Initiative has developed solutions to overcome market barriers to energy reductions in small commercial buildings by building on the success of four local and Southeast regional energy efficiency deployment programs. These programs address a variety of small commercial building types, efficiency levels, owners, facility manager skills and needs for financing. The deployment programs also reach critical private sector, utility, nonprofit and government submarkets, and have strong potential to be replicated at scale. During the grant period, 200 small commercial buildings participated in Southface-sponsored energy upgrade programs, saving 166,736,703 kBtu of source energy.

New Stream-reach Development: A Comprehensive Assessment of Hydropower Energy Potential in the United States

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kao, Shih-Chieh; McManamay, Ryan A; Stewart, Kevin M

2014-04-01

The rapid development of multiple national geospatial datasets related to topography, hydrology, and environmental characteristics in the past decade have provided new opportunities for the refinement of hydropower resource potential from undeveloped stream-reaches. Through 2011 to 2013, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was tasked by the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program to evaluate the new stream-reach development (NSD) resource potential for more than 3 million US streams. A methodology was designed that contains three main components: (1) identification of stream-reaches with high energy density, (2) topographical analysis of stream-reaches to estimate inundated surface area and reservoir storage,more » and (3) environmental attribution to spatially join information related to the natural ecological systems, social and cultural settings, policies, management, and legal constraints to stream-reaches of energy potential. An initial report on methodology (Hadjerioua et al., 2013) was later reviewed and revised based on the comments gathered from two peer review workshops. After implementing the assessment across the entire United States, major findings were summarized in this final report. The estimated NSD capacity and generation, including both higher-energy-density (>1 MW per reach) and lower-energy-density (<1 MW per reach) stream-reaches is 84.7 GW, around the same size as the existing US conventional hydropower nameplate capacity (79.5 GW; NHAAP, 2013). In terms of energy, the total undeveloped NSD generation is estimated to be 460 TWh/year, around 169% of average 2002 2011 net annual generation from existing conventional hydropower plants (272 TWh/year; EIA, 2013). Given the run-of-river assumption, NSD stream-reaches have higher capacity factors (53 71%), especially compared with conventional larger-storage peaking-operation projects that usually have capacity factors of around 30%. The highest potential is identified in the Pacific Northwest Region (32%), followed by Missouri Region (15%) and California Region (9%). In terms of states, the highest potential is found in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the three states in the Pacific Northwest, followed by California, Alaska, Montana, and Colorado. In addition to the resource potential, abundant environmental attributes were also organized and attributed to the identified stream-reaches to support further hydropower market analysis. The prevalence of environmental variables and proportion of capacity from stream-reaches intersecting environmental variables varied according to hydrologic region. Detailed NSD findings are organized by hydrologic regions and presented in each chapter of this report.« less

Classification of wetlands vegetation using small scale color infrared imagery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williamson, F. S. L.

1975-01-01

A classification system for Chesapeake Bay wetlands was derived from the correlation of film density classes and actual vegetation classes. The data processing programs used were developed by the Laboratory for the Applications of Remote Sensing. These programs were tested for their value in classifying natural vegetation, using digitized data from small scale aerial photography. Existing imagery and the vegetation map of Farm Creek Marsh were used to determine the optimal number of classes, and to aid in determining if the computer maps were a believable product.

Low-head hydropower assessment of the Brazilian State of São Paulo

USGS Publications Warehouse

Artan, Guleid A.; Cushing, W. Matthew; Mathis, Melissa L.; Tieszen, Larry L.

2014-01-01

This study produced a comprehensive estimate of the magnitude of hydropower potential available in the streams that drain watersheds entirely within the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Because a large part of the contributing area is outside of São Paulo, the main stem of the Paraná River was excluded from the assessment. Potential head drops were calculated from the Digital Terrain Elevation Data,which has a 1-arc-second resolution (approximately 30-meter resolution at the equator). For the conditioning and validation of synthetic stream channels derived from the Digital Elevation Model datasets, hydrography data (in digital format) supplied by the São Paulo State Department of Energy and the Agência Nacional de Águas were used. Within the study area there were 1,424 rain gages and 123 streamgages with long-term data records. To estimate average yearly streamflow, a hydrologic regionalization system that divides the State into 21 homogeneous basins was used. Stream segments, upstream areas, and mean annual rainfall were estimated using geographic information systems techniques. The accuracy of the flows estimated with the regionalization models was validated. Overall, simulated streamflows were significantly correlated with the observed flows but with a consistent underestimation bias. When the annual mean flows from the regionalization models were adjusted upward by 10 percent, average streamflow estimation bias was reduced from -13 percent to -4 percent. The sum of all the validated stream reach mean annual hydropower potentials in the 21 basins is 7,000 megawatts (MW). Hydropower potential is mainly concentrated near the Serra do Mar mountain range and along the Tietê River. The power potential along the Tietê River is mainly at sites with medium and high potentials, sites where hydropower has already been harnessed. In addition to the annual mean hydropower estimates, potential hydropower estimates with flow rates with exceedance probabilities of 40 percent, 60 percent, and 90 percent were made.

Two-Phased Approach to Synchronize the FERC-USACE Processes for Authorizing Non-Federal Hydropower Projects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2016-07-01

Publication summarizing how the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Federal Regulatory Energy Commission (FERC) have developed a two-phased, coordinated approach to regulating non-federal hydropower projects.

IMPLEMENTING PRACTICAL PICO-HYDROPOWER

EPA Science Inventory

Deliverables for this proposal will be energy output data modeled from experimental testing of the hydropower unit and monitoring of the stormwater handling infrastructure in the GIS building; along with a design and engineering plan for implementation and building integrat...

Hydropower Manufacturing and Supply Chain Analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cotrell, Jason R

Hydropower Manufacturing and Supply Chain Analysis presentation from the WPTO FY14-FY16 Peer Review. The project objective is to provide data and insights to inform investment strategies, policy, and other decisions to promote economic growth and manufacturing.

Freshwater ecosystems could become the biggest losers of the Paris Agreement.

PubMed

Hermoso, Virgilio

2017-09-01

Securing access to energy for a growing population under the international commitment of reduction of greenhouse emissions requires increasing the contribution of renewable sources to the global share. Hydropower energy, which accounts for >80% of green energy, is experiencing a boom fostered by international investment mainly in developing countries. This boom could be further accelerated by the recent climate agreement reached in Paris. Despite its flexibility, hydropower production entails social, economic and ecological risks that need to be carefully considered before investing in the development of potentially thousands of planned hydropower projects worldwide. This is especially relevant given the weak or nonexistent legislation that regulates hydropower project approval and construction in many countries. I highlight the need for adequate policy to provide the Paris Agreement with new financial and planning mechanisms to avoid further and irreversible damage to freshwater ecosystem services and biodiversity. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Regulatory Approaches for Adding Capacity to Existing Hydropower Facilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Levine, Aaron L.; Curtis, Taylor L.; Kazerooni, Borna

In 2015, hydroelectric generation accounted for more than 6 percent of total net electricity generation in the United States and 46 percent of electricity generation from all renewables. The United States has considerable hydroelectric potential beyond what is already being developed. Nearly 7 GW of this potential is found by adding capacity to existing hydropower facilities. To optimize the value of hydroelectric generation, the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydropower Vision Study highlights the importance of adding capacity to existing facilities. This report provides strategic approaches and considerations for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensed and exempt hydropower facilities seeking to increasemore » generation capacity, which may include increases from efficiency upgrades. The regulatory approaches reviewed for this report include capacity and non-capacity amendments, adding capacity during relicensing, and adding capacity when converting a license to a 10-MW exemption.« less

[Impacts of large hydropower station on benthic algal communities].

PubMed

Jia, Xing-Huan; Jiang, Wan-Xiang; Li, Feng-Qing; Tang, Tao; Duan, Shu-Gui; Cai, Qing-Hua

2009-07-01

To investigate the impacts of large hydropower station in Gufu River on benthic algae, monthly samplings were conducted from September 2004 to June 2007 at the site GF04 which was impacted by the hydropower station, with the site GL03 in Gaolan River as reference. During sampling period, no significant differences were observed in the main physicochemical variables between GF04 and GL03, but the hydrodynamics differed significantly. GL03 was basically at a status of slow flow; while GF04, owing to the discharging from the reservoir, was at a riffle status during more than 60% of the sampling period. Such a difference in hydrodynamics induced significant differences in the community similarity of benthic algae and the relative abundance of unattached diatoms, erect diatoms, and stalked diatoms between GF04 and GL03, which could better reflect the impacts of irregular draw-off by large hydropower station on river eco-system.

Prognostics and health management system for hydropower plant based on fog computing and docker container

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Jian; Zhang, Mingqiang; Tian, Haiping; Huang, Bo; Fu, Wenlong

2018-02-01

In this paper, a novel prognostics and health management system architecture for hydropower plant equipment was proposed based on fog computing and Docker container. We employed the fog node to improve the real-time processing ability of improving the cloud architecture-based prognostics and health management system and overcome the problems of long delay time, network congestion and so on. Then Storm-based stream processing of fog node was present and could calculate the health index in the edge of network. Moreover, the distributed micros-service and Docker container architecture of hydropower plants equipment prognostics and health management was also proposed. Using the micro service architecture proposed in this paper, the hydropower unit can achieve the goal of the business intercommunication and seamless integration of different equipment and different manufacturers. Finally a real application case is given in this paper.

The Saskatchewan River Basin - a large scale observatory for water security research (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wheater, H. S.

2013-12-01

The 336,000 km2 Saskatchewan River Basin (SaskRB) in Western Canada illustrates many of the issues of Water Security faced world-wide. It poses globally-important science challenges due to the diversity in its hydro-climate and ecological zones. With one of the world's more extreme climates, it embodies environments of global significance, including the Rocky Mountains (source of the major rivers in Western Canada), the Boreal Forest (representing 30% of Canada's land area) and the Prairies (home to 80% of Canada's agriculture). Management concerns include: provision of water resources to more than three million inhabitants, including indigenous communities; balancing competing needs for water between different uses, such as urban centres, industry, agriculture, hydropower and environmental flows; issues of water allocation between upstream and downstream users in the three prairie provinces; managing the risks of flood and droughts; and assessing water quality impacts of discharges from major cities and intensive agricultural production. Superimposed on these issues is the need to understand and manage uncertain water futures, including effects of economic growth and environmental change, in a highly fragmented water governance environment. Key science questions focus on understanding and predicting the effects of land and water management and environmental change on water quantity and quality. To address the science challenges, observational data are necessary across multiple scales. This requires focussed research at intensively monitored sites and small watersheds to improve process understanding and fine-scale models. To understand large-scale effects on river flows and quality, land-atmosphere feedbacks, and regional climate, integrated monitoring, modelling and analysis is needed at large basin scale. And to support water management, new tools are needed for operational management and scenario-based planning that can be implemented across multiple scales and multiple jurisdictions. The SaskRB has therefore been developed as a large scale observatory, now a Regional Hydroclimate Project of the World Climate Research Programme's GEWEX project, and is available to contribute to the emerging North American Water Program. State-of-the-art hydro-ecological experimental sites have been developed for the key biomes, and a river and lake biogeochemical research facility, focussed on impacts of nutrients and exotic chemicals. Data are integrated at SaskRB scale to support the development of improved large scale climate and hydrological modelling products, the development of DSS systems for local, provincial and basin-scale management, and the development of related social science research, engaging stakeholders in the research and exploring their values and priorities for water security. The observatory provides multiple scales of observation and modelling required to develop: a) new climate, hydrological and ecological science and modelling tools to address environmental change in key environments, and their integrated effects and feedbacks at large catchment scale, b) new tools needed to support river basin management under uncertainty, including anthropogenic controls on land and water management and c) the place-based focus for the development of new transdisciplinary science.

Multi-time Scale Joint Scheduling Method Considering the Grid of Renewable Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhijun, E.; Wang, Weichen; Cao, Jin; Wang, Xin; Kong, Xiangyu; Quan, Shuping

2018-01-01

Renewable new energy power generation prediction error like wind and light, brings difficulties to dispatch the power system. In this paper, a multi-time scale robust scheduling method is set to solve this problem. It reduces the impact of clean energy prediction bias to the power grid by using multi-time scale (day-ahead, intraday, real time) and coordinating the dispatching power output of various power supplies such as hydropower, thermal power, wind power, gas power and. The method adopts the robust scheduling method to ensure the robustness of the scheduling scheme. By calculating the cost of the abandon wind and the load, it transforms the robustness into the risk cost and optimizes the optimal uncertainty set for the smallest integrative costs. The validity of the method is verified by simulation.

2017 Annual Technology Baseline

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cole, Wesley J; Hand, M. M; Eberle, Annika

Consistent cost and performance data for various electricity generation technologies can be difficult to find and may change frequently for certain technologies. With the Annual Technology Baseline (ATB), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory annually provides an organized and centralized set of such cost and performance data. The ATB uses the best information from the Department of Energy national laboratories' renewable energy analysts as well as information from the Energy Information Administration for fuel-based technologies. The ATB has been reviewed by experts and it includes the following electricity generation technologies: land-based wind, offshore wind, utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV), commercial-scale solar PV,more » residential-scale solar PV, concentrating solar power, geothermal power, hydropower, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and conventional biopower. This webinar presentation introduces the 2017 ATB.« less

Parallel and serial computing tools for testing single-locus and epistatic SNP effects of quantitative traits in genome-wide association studies

PubMed Central

Ma, Li; Runesha, H Birali; Dvorkin, Daniel; Garbe, John R; Da, Yang

2008-01-01

Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers provide opportunities to detect epistatic SNPs associated with quantitative traits and to detect the exact mode of an epistasis effect. Computational difficulty is the main bottleneck for epistasis testing in large scale GWAS. Results The EPISNPmpi and EPISNP computer programs were developed for testing single-locus and epistatic SNP effects on quantitative traits in GWAS, including tests of three single-locus effects for each SNP (SNP genotypic effect, additive and dominance effects) and five epistasis effects for each pair of SNPs (two-locus interaction, additive × additive, additive × dominance, dominance × additive, and dominance × dominance) based on the extended Kempthorne model. EPISNPmpi is the parallel computing program for epistasis testing in large scale GWAS and achieved excellent scalability for large scale analysis and portability for various parallel computing platforms. EPISNP is the serial computing program based on the EPISNPmpi code for epistasis testing in small scale GWAS using commonly available operating systems and computer hardware. Three serial computing utility programs were developed for graphical viewing of test results and epistasis networks, and for estimating CPU time and disk space requirements. Conclusion The EPISNPmpi parallel computing program provides an effective computing tool for epistasis testing in large scale GWAS, and the epiSNP serial computing programs are convenient tools for epistasis analysis in small scale GWAS using commonly available computer hardware. PMID:18644146

Organizing environmental flow frameworks to meet hydropower mitigation needs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McManamay, Ryan A.; Brewer, Shannon K.; Jager, Henriette I.

The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing water needs for ecosystems, energy production, and other human uses. Thus, stakeholders must identify a prioritized subset of flow prescriptions that meet ecological objectives in light of realistic constraints. Yet, isolating aspects of flow regimes to restore downstream of hydropower facilities is among the greatest challenges of environmental flow sciencemore » due, in part, to the sheer volume of available environmental flow tools in conjunction with complex negotiation-based regulatory procedures. Here, we propose an organizational framework that structures information and existing flow paradigms into a staged process that assists stakeholders in implementing environmental flows for hydropower facilities. The framework identifies areas where regulations fall short of the needed scientific process, and provide suggestions for stakeholders to ameliorate those situations through advanced preparation. We highlight the strengths of existing flow paradigms in their application to hydropower settings and suggest when and where tools are most applicable. In conclusion, our suggested framework increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-flow implementation process by rapidly establishing a knowledge base and decreasing uncertainty so more time can be devoted to filling knowledge gaps. As a result, the framework provides the structure for a coordinated research agenda to further the science of environmental flows related to hydropower environments.« less

Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model.

PubMed

Turner, Sean W D; Ng, Jia Yi; Galelli, Stefano

2017-07-15

An important and plausible impact of a changing global climate is altered power generation from hydroelectric dams. Here we project 21st century global hydropower production by forcing a coupled, global hydrological and dam model with three General Circulation Model (GCM) projections run under two emissions scenarios. Dams are simulated using a detailed model that accounts for plant specifications, storage dynamics, reservoir bathymetry and realistic, optimized operations. We show that the inclusion of these features can have a non-trivial effect on the simulated response of hydropower production to changes in climate. Simulation results highlight substantial uncertainty in the direction of change in globally aggregated hydropower production (~-5 to +5% change in mean global production by the 2080s under a high emissions scenario, depending on GCM). Several clearly impacted hotspots are identified, the most prominent of which encompasses the Mediterranean countries in southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. In this region, hydropower production is projected to be reduced by approximately 40% on average by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario. After accounting for each country's dependence on hydropower for meeting its current electricity demands, the Balkans countries emerge as the most vulnerable (~5-20% loss in total national electricity generation depending on country). On the flipside, a handful of countries in Scandinavia and central Asia are projected to reap a significant increase in total electrical production (~5-15%) without investing in new power generation facilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model

DOE PAGES

Turner, Sean W. D.; Ng, Jia Yi; Galelli, Stefano

2017-03-07

Here, an important and plausible impact of a changing global climate is altered power generation from hydroelectric dams. Here we project 21st century global hydropower production by forcing a coupled, global hydrological and dam model with three General Circulation Model (GCM) projections run under two emissions scenarios. Dams are simulated using a detailed model that accounts for plant specifications, storage dynamics, reservoir bathymetry and realistic, optimized operations. We show that the inclusion of these features can have a non-trivial effect on the simulated response of hydropower production to changes in climate. Simulation results highlight substantial uncertainty in the direction ofmore » change in globally aggregated hydropower production (~–5 to + 5% change in mean global production by the 2080s under a high emissions scenario, depending on GCM). Several clearly impacted hotspots are identified, the most prominent of which encompasses the Mediterranean countries in southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. In this region, hydropower production is projected to be reduced by approximately 40% on average by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario. After accounting for each country's dependence on hydropower for meeting its current electricity demands, the Balkans countries emerge as the most vulnerable (~ 5–20% loss in total national electricity generation depending on country). On the flipside, a handful of countries in Scandinavia and central Asia are projected to reap a significant increase in total electrical production (~ 5–15%) without investing in new power generation facilities.« less

Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turner, Sean W. D.; Ng, Jia Yi; Galelli, Stefano

Here, an important and plausible impact of a changing global climate is altered power generation from hydroelectric dams. Here we project 21st century global hydropower production by forcing a coupled, global hydrological and dam model with three General Circulation Model (GCM) projections run under two emissions scenarios. Dams are simulated using a detailed model that accounts for plant specifications, storage dynamics, reservoir bathymetry and realistic, optimized operations. We show that the inclusion of these features can have a non-trivial effect on the simulated response of hydropower production to changes in climate. Simulation results highlight substantial uncertainty in the direction ofmore » change in globally aggregated hydropower production (~–5 to + 5% change in mean global production by the 2080s under a high emissions scenario, depending on GCM). Several clearly impacted hotspots are identified, the most prominent of which encompasses the Mediterranean countries in southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. In this region, hydropower production is projected to be reduced by approximately 40% on average by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario. After accounting for each country's dependence on hydropower for meeting its current electricity demands, the Balkans countries emerge as the most vulnerable (~ 5–20% loss in total national electricity generation depending on country). On the flipside, a handful of countries in Scandinavia and central Asia are projected to reap a significant increase in total electrical production (~ 5–15%) without investing in new power generation facilities.« less

Organizing environmental flow frameworks to meet hydropower mitigation needs

DOE PAGES

McManamay, Ryan A.; Brewer, Shannon K.; Jager, Henriette I.; ...

2016-06-25

The global recognition of the importance of natural flow regimes to sustain the ecological integrity of river systems has led to increased societal pressure on the hydropower industry to change plant operations to improve downstream aquatic ecosystems. However, a complete reinstatement of natural flow regimes is often unrealistic when balancing water needs for ecosystems, energy production, and other human uses. Thus, stakeholders must identify a prioritized subset of flow prescriptions that meet ecological objectives in light of realistic constraints. Yet, isolating aspects of flow regimes to restore downstream of hydropower facilities is among the greatest challenges of environmental flow sciencemore » due, in part, to the sheer volume of available environmental flow tools in conjunction with complex negotiation-based regulatory procedures. Here, we propose an organizational framework that structures information and existing flow paradigms into a staged process that assists stakeholders in implementing environmental flows for hydropower facilities. The framework identifies areas where regulations fall short of the needed scientific process, and provide suggestions for stakeholders to ameliorate those situations through advanced preparation. We highlight the strengths of existing flow paradigms in their application to hydropower settings and suggest when and where tools are most applicable. In conclusion, our suggested framework increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the e-flow implementation process by rapidly establishing a knowledge base and decreasing uncertainty so more time can be devoted to filling knowledge gaps. As a result, the framework provides the structure for a coordinated research agenda to further the science of environmental flows related to hydropower environments.« less

75 FR 62518 - Northern Illinois Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Ready for Environmental Analysis and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-12

... Hydropower, LLC, 801 Oakland Avenue, Joliet, IL 60435, (312) 320-1610. i. FERC Contact: Janet Hutzel, (202) 502-8675 or janet[email protected] . j. Deadline for filing comments, recommendations, terms and...

Assessing the hydropower potential of ungauged watersheds in Iceland using hydrological modeling and satellite retrieved snow cover images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finger, David

2015-04-01

About 80% of the domestic energy production in Iceland comes from renewable energies. Hydropower accounts for about 20% this production, representing about 75% of the total electricity production in Iceland. In 2008 total electricity production from hydropower was about 12.5 TWh a-1, making Iceland a worldwide leader in hydropower production per capita. Furthermore, the total potential of hydroelectricity in Iceland is estimated to amount up to 220 TWh a-1. In this regard, hydrological modelling is an essential tool to adapt a sustainable management of water resources and estimate the potential of possible new sites for hydropower production. We used the conceptual lumped Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning model (HBV) to estimate the potential of hydropower production in two remote areas in north-eastern Iceland (Leirdalshraun, a 274 km2 area above 595 m asl and Hafralónsá, a 946 km2 area above 235 m asl). The model parameters were determined by calibrating the model with discharge data from gauged sub catchments. Satellite snow cover images were used to constrain melt parameters of the model and assure adequate modelling of snow melt in the ungauged areas. This was particularly valuable to adequately estimate the contribution of snow melt, rainfall runoff and groundwater intrusion from glaciers outside the topographic boundaries of the selected watersheds. Runoff from the entire area potentially used for hydropower exploitation was estimated using the parameter sets of the gauged sub-catchments. Additionally, snow melt from the ungauged areas was validated with satellite based snow cover images, revealing a robust simulation of snow melt in the entire area. Based on the hydrological modelling the total amount of snow melt and rainfall runoff available in Leirdalshraun and Hafralónsá amounts up to 700 M m3 a-1 and 1000 M m3 a-1, respectively. These results reveal that the total hydropower potential of the two sites amounts up to 1.2 TWh a-1 hydroelectricity, accounting for about 10% of the current production in Iceland. These result are of eminent importance to embed sustainable and resilient based water management in discussions concerning future plans of national energy production.

Effects of Climate Change and Deforestation on the Amazon's Hydrological Cycle Will Require Interventions to Hydropower Planning in Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias, M. E.; Farinosi, F.; Lee, E.; Livino, A.; Moorcroft, P. R.

2016-12-01

Brazil is the 2nd largest hydropower producer in the world, and this energy source will continue to be a priority in the country for the foreseeable decades. Yet, climate change is expected to alter the country's hydrological regime, in particular in the Amazon where most new hydropower development is occurring. In order to better assess the potential of hydropower projects in decades to come, it is important to evaluate how future hydrological regimes will affect their performance and suitability. This study quantifies the impacts of climate change and land use conversion on hydropower generation, and identifies mechanisms that could help energy planners to account for future changes. Using the largest network of dams in Brazil's national portfolio within a single watershed, the Tapaj's River, this study connects global and regional future environmental projections to daily river flows and operations of 37 dams with an overall potential capacity of 29.4 GW. We found that climate change could decrease hydropower potential by 477-665 MW (-6 to -8% from historical conditions) during the dry season, a critical loss since dams are expected to operate at only one third of capacity during this perioddue to the limited reservoir volume of most projects in the Amazon lowlands. Furthermore, deforestation is expected to increase the inter-annual variability in hydropower potential from 2,798 for baseline conditions to 3,764-3,899 (+967-1102) MW under future scenarios for the 2040s. Consideration of future hydrological conditions on individual dams showed that the magnitude and uncertainty of losses could be greater than 30 MW -equivalent to the total potential of some dams in the inventory- in 11 of the projects studied. Future hydrological conditions could also delay the period when maximum daily generation occurs by 22-29 days, which could have important implications to energy planning in Brazil because these run-of-river dams would no longer be able to meet the country's seasonal peak demand. This information on future changes to individual dams' performance could feed directly into the project selection process in order to adapt designs and operations to ensure the greatest benefits and least impacts from hydropower in the long term.

Hydrological impact of high-density small dams in a humid catchment, Southeast China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, W.; Lei, H.; Yang, D.

2017-12-01

The Jiulong River basin is a humid catchment with a drainage area of 14,741 km2; however, it has over 1000 hydropower stations within it. Such catchment with high-density small dams is scarce in China. Yet few is known about the impact of high-density small dams on streamflow changes. To what extent the large number of dams alters the hydrologic patterns is a fundamental scientific issue for water resources management, flood control, and aquatic ecological environment protection. Firstly, trend and change point analyses are applied to determine the characteristics of inter-annual streamflow. Based on the detected change point, the study period is divided into two study periods, the ``natural'' and ``disturbed'' periods. Then, a geomorphology-based hydrological model (GBHM) and the fixing-changing method are adopted to evaluate the relative contributions of climate variations and damming to the changes in streamflow at each temporal scale (i.e., from daily, monthly to annual). Based on the simulated natural streamflow, the impact of dam construction on hydrologic alteration and aquatic ecological environment will be evaluated. The hydrologic signatures that will be investigated include flood peak, seasonality of streamflow, and the inter-annual variability of streamflow. In particular, the impacts of damming on aquatic ecological environment will be investigated using eco-flow metrics and indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA) which contains 33 individual streamflow statistics that are closely related to aquatic ecosystem. The results of this study expect to provide a reference for reservoir operation considering both ecological and economic benefits of such operations in the catchment with high-density dams.

Responses of aquatic macrophytes to anthropogenic pressures: comparison between macrophyte metrics and indices.

PubMed

Camargo, Julio A

2018-02-26

Macrophyte responses to anthropogenic pressures in two rivers of Central Spain were assessed to check if simple metrics can exhibit a greater discriminatory and explanatory power than complex indices at small spatial scales. Field surveys were undertaken during the summer of 2014 (Duraton River) and the spring of 2015 (Tajuña River). Aquatic macrophytes were sampled using a sampling square (45 × 45 cm). In the middle Duraton River, macrophytes responded positively to the presence of a hydropower dam and a small weir, with Myriophyllum spicatum and Potamogeton pectinatus being relatively favored. Index of Macrophytes (IM) was better than Macroscopic Aquatic Vegetation Index (MAVI) and Fluvial Macrophyte Index (FMI) in detecting these responses, showing positive and significant correlations with total coverage, species richness, and species diversity. In the upper Tajuña River, macrophytes responded both negatively and positively to the occurrence of a trout farm effluent and a small weir, with Leptodictyum riparium and Veronica anagallis-aquatica being relatively favored. Although IM, MAVI, and FMI detected both negative and positive responses, correlations of IM with total coverage, species richness, and species diversity were higher. Species evenness was not sensitive enough to detect either positive or negative responses of aquatic macrophytes along the study areas. Overall, traditional and simple metrics (species composition, total coverage, species richness, species diversity) exhibited a greater discriminatory and explanatory power than more recent and complex indices (IM, MAVI, FMI) when assessing responses of aquatic macrophytes to anthropogenic pressures at impacted specific sites.

a Stochastic Approach to Multiobjective Optimization of Large-Scale Water Reservoir Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bottacin-Busolin, A.; Worman, A. L.

2013-12-01

A main challenge for the planning and management of water resources is the development of multiobjective strategies for operation of large-scale water reservoir networks. The optimal sequence of water releases from multiple reservoirs depends on the stochastic variability of correlated hydrologic inflows and on various processes that affect water demand and energy prices. Although several methods have been suggested, large-scale optimization problems arising in water resources management are still plagued by the high dimensional state space and by the stochastic nature of the hydrologic inflows. In this work, the optimization of reservoir operation is approached using approximate dynamic programming (ADP) with policy iteration and function approximators. The method is based on an off-line learning process in which operating policies are evaluated for a number of stochastic inflow scenarios, and the resulting value functions are used to design new, improved policies until convergence is attained. A case study is presented of a multi-reservoir system in the Dalälven River, Sweden, which includes 13 interconnected reservoirs and 36 power stations. Depending on the late spring and summer peak discharges, the lowlands adjacent to Dalälven can often be flooded during the summer period, and the presence of stagnating floodwater during the hottest months of the year is the cause of a large proliferation of mosquitos, which is a major problem for the people living in the surroundings. Chemical pesticides are currently being used as a preventive countermeasure, which do not provide an effective solution to the problem and have adverse environmental impacts. In this study, ADP was used to analyze the feasibility of alternative operating policies for reducing the flood risk at a reasonable economic cost for the hydropower companies. To this end, mid-term operating policies were derived by combining flood risk reduction with hydropower production objectives. The performance of the resulting policies was evaluated by simulating the online operating process for historical inflow scenarios and synthetic inflow forecasts. The simulations are based on a combined mid- and short-term planning model in which the value function derived in the mid-term planning phase provides the value of the policy at the end of the short-term operating horizon. While a purely deterministic linear analysis provided rather optimistic results, the stochastic model allowed for a more accurate evaluation of trade-offs and limitations of alternative operating strategies for the Dalälven reservoir network.

Wind and solar energy resources on the 'Roof of the World'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zandler, Harald; Morche, Thomas; Samimi, Cyrus

2015-04-01

The Eastern Pamirs of Tajikistan, often referred to as 'Roof of the World', are an arid high mountain plateau characterized by severe energy poverty that may have great potential for renewable energy resources due to the prevailing natural conditions. The lack of energetic infrastructure makes the region a prime target for decentralized integration of wind and solar power. However, up to date no scientific attempt to assess the regional potential of these resources has been carried out. In this context, it is particularly important to evaluate if wind and solar energy are able to provide enough power to generate thermal energy, as other thermal energy carriers are scarce or unavailable and the existing alternative, local harvest of dwarf shrubs, is unsustainable due to the slow regeneration in this environment. Therefore, this study examines the feasibility of using wind and solar energy as thermal energy sources. Financial frame conditions were set on a maximum amount of five million Euros. This sum provides a realistic scenario as it is based on the current budget of the KfW development bank to finance the modernization of the local hydropower plant in the regions only city, Murghab, with about 1500 households. The basis for resource assessment is data of four climate stations, erected for this purpose in 2012, where wind speed, wind direction, global radiation and temperature are measured at a half hourly interval. These measurements confirm the expectation of a large photovoltaic potential and high panel efficiency with up to 84 percent of extraterrestrial radiation reaching the surface and only 16 hours of temperatures above 25°C were measured in two years at the village stations on average. As these observations are only point measurements, radiation data and the ASTER GDEM was used to train a GIS based solar radiation model to spatially extrapolate incoming radiation. With mean validation errors ranging from 5% in July (minimum) to 15% in December (maximum) the extrapolation showed sufficient modeling performance to create the first solar atlas of the Eastern Pamirs. This solar atlas, adapted to optimal panel inclination using 5000 random points, was used to compute expected electricity amounts for two scenarios: one for decentralized small scale implementation and one for a larger scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant. Based on the month with the minimum incoming radiation and the expected energy demand for cooking, the cost for the required infrastructure was assessed. The results showed that an implementation of a PV power plant in Murghab would generate enough power for basic cooking within the estimated budget in winter. In summer the power plant would deliver at least as much energy as the planned hydropower plant if latter would continuously deliver its anticipated peak power. The decentralized scenario for a village with 210 households without existing energy grid resulted in higher investment costs of about 8,000 € per household to meet basic cooking demands in winter. Wind energy potential was assessed based on local wind measurements and an assumed installation of small scale wind turbines. Short time scale comparison of wind and solar resources showed that they mainly occur simultaneously and positive synergy effects are negligible. Furthermore, the financial analysis resulted in significantly higher cost for wind energy even in favorable locations making this resource less important for the region. Our results suggest that solar energy could make a substantial contribution to sustainable energy supply and to alleviate energy poverty and environmental degradation in the Eastern Pamirs of Tajikistan.

Public Participation Guide: Proposed Popa Falls Hydropower Project, Okavango River, Namibia

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The proposed hydropower project at Popa Falls case study illustrates the importance of carefully considering the scope of a public participation process when an environmental assessment is preliminary and when trans-boundary project impacts are a factor.

Regulation of snow-fed rivers affects flow regimes more than climate change.

PubMed

Arheimer, B; Donnelly, C; Lindström, G

2017-07-05

River flow is mainly controlled by climate, physiography and regulations, but their relative importance over large landmasses is poorly understood. Here we show from computational modelling that hydropower regulation is a key driver of flow regime change in snow-dominated regions and is more important than future climate changes. This implies that climate adaptation needs to include regulation schemes. The natural river regime in snowy regions has low flow when snow is stored and a pronounced peak flow when snow is melting. Global warming and hydropower regulation change this temporal pattern similarly, causing less difference in river flow between seasons. We conclude that in snow-fed rivers globally, the future climate change impact on flow regime is minor compared to regulation downstream of large reservoirs, and of similar magnitude over large landmasses. Our study not only highlights the impact of hydropower production but also that river regulation could be turned into a measure for climate adaptation to maintain biodiversity on floodplains under climate change.Global warming and hydropower regulations are major threats to future fresh-water availability and biodiversity. Here, the authors show that their impact on flow regime over a large landmass result in similar changes, but hydropower is more critical locally and may have potential for climate adaptation in floodplains.

Airborne surveys in the Arctic and Antarctic for geophysics, sea-ice thickness, and CryoSat validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forsberg, R.; Olesen, A. V.; Hvidegaard, S.; Skourup, H.

2010-12-01

Airborne laser and radar measurements over the Greenland ice sheet, Svalbard, and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean have been carried out by DTU-Space in a number of recent Danish/Greenlandic and European project campaigns, with the purpose to monitor ice sheet and sea-ice changes, support of Greenland societal needs (oil exploration and hydropower), and support of CryoSat pre-launch calibration and validation campaigns. The Arctic campaigns have been done using a Twin-Otter aircraft, carrying laser scanners and various radars. Since 2009 a new program of long-range gravity and magnetic surveys have been initiated using a Basler DC3 aircraft for large-scale surveys in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica, with the 2010 cooperative Danish-Argentinean-Chilean-US ICEGRAV survey of the Antarctic Peninsula additionally including a UTIG 60 MHz ice-penetrating radar. In the paper we outline the recent and upcoming airborne survey activities, outline the usefulness of the airborne data for satellite validation (CryoSat and GOCE), and give examples of measurements and comparisons to satellite and in-situ data.

Framework of systematic sustainability assessment strategy (FSSAS) for hydroelectric power industry in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johan, Kartina; Turan, Faiz Mohd

2017-08-01

Hydroelectric power is an alternative power resource in Malaysia and always associated with negative impact on environmental, social and economy of the surrounding site. The dispute over environmental, societal and economic issues can be minimised if compliance to sustainability development requirement is included in the project as part of the project premises during planning phase. This paper suggests a framework targeted for decision-makers in charge of implementing the projects to produce hydropower the sustainable way in Malaysian context which can mitigate the risks in social, environment and economy. The framework is strategic in nature and based on project management methodology with objective to provide a ‘common language’ by having a project value as measureable for stakeholders to state their mutual agreement of what a sustainable hydropower project in the context of Malaysia and in line with the United Nations (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper discusses how the proposed systematic sustainability assessment strategy (FSSAS) framework support the call for Malaysia to promote meaningful public participation in ensuring land and natural resource decisions and to address citizens’ interests which is the core idea of Environmental Democracy Index established in 2014. The paper argues that, even though it is at present impossible to define precision status of sustainability development with respect to the nature of the multi stakeholders and the lack of systematic assessment the proposed FSSAS framework can be a valuable tool because it tracks the project value as a quantitative deliverable to determine the status of the journey in sustainable development towards accomplishing the SDG under a consensus in hydropower industry of any scale over time.

Dokan Hydropower Reservoir Operation under Stochastic Conditions as Regards the Inflows and the Energy Demands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Izat Rashed, Ghamgeen

2018-03-01

This paper presented a way of obtaining certain operating rules on time steps for the management of a large reservoir operation with a peak hydropower plant associated to it. The rules were allowed to have the form of non-linear regression equations which link a decision variable (here the water volume in the reservoir at the end of the time step) by several parameters influencing it. This paper considered the Dokan hydroelectric development KR-Iraq, which operation data are available for. It was showing that both the monthly average inflows and the monthly power demands are random variables. A model of deterministic dynamic programming intending the minimization of the total amount of the squares differences between the demanded energy and the generated energy is run with a multitude of annual scenarios of inflows and monthly required energies. The operating rules achieved allow the efficient and safe management of the operation and it is quietly and accurately known the forecast of the inflow and of the energy demand on the next time step.

Pollution reduction technology program for small jet aircraft engines: Class T1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bruce, T. W.; Davis, F. G.; Mongia, H. C.

1977-01-01

Small jet aircraft engines (EPA class T1, turbojet and turbofan engines of less than 35.6 kN thrust) were evaluated with the objective of attaining emissions reduction consistent with performance constraints. Configurations employing the technological advances were screened and developed through full scale rig testing. The most promising approaches in full-scale engine testing were evaluated.

Application of the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) System for Integrated Hydrologic and Scenario-based Water Resources Systems Modeling in the Western Sierra Nevada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehta, V. K.; Purkey, D. R.; Young, C.; Joyce, B.; Yates, D.

2008-12-01

Rivers draining western slopes of the Sierra Nevada provide critical water supply, hydropower, fisheries and recreation services to California. Coordinated efforts are under way to better characterize and model the possible impacts of climate change on Sierra Nevada hydrology. Research suggests substantial end-of- century reductions in Sierra Nevada snowpack and a shift in the center of mass of the snowmelt hydrograph. Management decisions, land use change and population growth add further complexity, necessitating the use of scenario-based modeling tools. The Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system is one of the suite of tools being employed in this effort. Unlike several models that rely on perturbation of historical runoff data to simulate future climate conditions, WEAP includes a dynamically integrated watershed hydrology module that is forced by input climate time series. This allows direct simulation of water management response to climate and land use change. This paper presents ABY2008, a WEAP application for the Yuba, Bear and American River (ABY) watersheds of the Sierra Nevada. These rivers are managed by water agencies and hydropower utilities through a complex network of reservoirs, dams, hydropower plants and water conveyances. Historical watershed hydrology in ABY2008 is driven by a 10 year weekly climate time series from 1991-2000. Land use and soils data were combined into 12 landclasses representing each of 324 hydrological response units. Hydrologic parameters were incorporated from a calibration against observed streamflow developed for the entire western Sierra. Physical reservoir data, operating rules, and water deliveries to water agencies were obtained from public documents of water agencies and power utilities that manage facilities in the watersheds. ABY2008 includes 25 major reservoirs, 39 conveyances, 33 hydropower plants and 14 transmission links to 13 major water demand points. In WEAP, decisions for transferring water at diversion points from rivers to facilities are based on assigned priorities. Priorities in ABY2008 follow Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license requirements and power purchase agreements between licensees and water/power contractors. These generally allocate water according to the following priorities - (i) maintaining minimum instream flows below diversions;(ii) irrigation and domestic consumptive water demands; and (iii) power generation. ABY2008 simulations compared well with historical annual and monthly hydropower generation. Annual hydropower for 31 hydropower plants was simulated with r2=0.85 and ste=58 GWh. Monthly hydropower for 21 power plants owned by three water agencies were simulated with r2= 0.74 and ste= 7.4 GWh. We also present early results on how climate change, manifest by increasing weekly average temperatures, translates into changes in the projected timing of runoff and patterns of snow accumulation. Consequent changes in met water supply demands and hydropower generated are discussed. Further, stakeholders in the northern Sierra seek to use ABY2008 to investigate management scenarios geared towards increased conservation flows for fish populations, and the possible tradeoffs thereof with hydropower and water supply. These applications with ABY2008 illustrate the substantial utility of scenario-based modeling with the WEAP system.

Scaled Centrifugal Compressor Program.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-10-31

small compressors in turbo - shaft, turbofan , and turboprop engines used in rotorcraft; fixed-wing general aviation, and cruise missile aircraft . Included...AD-A±74 "I SCALED CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR PEOGRAN(U) GARRETT13 TURBINE ENGINE CO PHOENIX AZ G CRGILL ET AL. 31 OCT 86 21-5464 MASA-CR-i?4912 NAS3...REPORT 6’ FOR SCALED CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR PROGRAM GARRETT TURBINE ENGINE COMPANY A DIVISION OF THE GARRETT CORPORATION I111 SOUTH 34TH STREET - P.O

Along-the-net reconstruction of hydropower potential with consideration of anthropic alterations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masoero, A.; Claps, P.; Gallo, E.; Ganora, D.; Laio, F.

2014-09-01

Even in regions with mature hydropower development, requirements for stable renewable power sources suggest revision of plans of exploitation of water resources, while taking care of the environmental regulations. Mean Annual Flow (MAF) is a key parameter when trying to represent water availability for hydropower purposes. MAF is usually determined in ungauged basins by means of regional statistical analysis. For this study a regional estimation method consistent along-the-river network has been developed for MAF estimation; the method uses a multi-regressive approach based on geomorphoclimatic descriptors, and it is applied on 100 gauged basins located in NW Italy. The method has been designed to keep the estimates of mean annual flow congruent at the confluences, by considering only raster-summable explanatory variables. Also, the influence of human alterations in the regional analysis of MAF has been studied: impact due to the presence of existing hydropower plants has been taken into account, restoring the "natural" value of runoff through analytical corrections. To exemplify the representation of the assessment of residual hydropower potential, the model has been applied extensively to two specific mountain watersheds by mapping the estimated mean flow for the basins draining into each pixel of a the DEM-derived river network. Spatial algorithms were developed using the OpenSource Software GRASS GIS and PostgreSQL/PostGIS. Spatial representation of the hydropower potential was obtained using different mean flow vs hydraulic-head relations for each pixel. Final potential indices have been represented and mapped through the Google Earth platform, providing a complete and interactive picture of the available potential, useful for planning and regulation purposes.

Studying Turbulence Using Numerical Simulation Databases. 3: Proceedings of the 1990 Summer Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spinks, Debra (Compiler)

1990-01-01

Papers that cover the following topics are presented: subgrid scale modeling; turbulence modeling; turbulence structure, transport, and control; small scales mixing; turbulent reacting flows; and turbulence theory.

Lightning protection technology for small general aviation composite material aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plumer, J. A.; Setzer, T. E.; Siddiqi, S.

1993-01-01

An on going NASA (Small Business Innovative Research) SBIR Phase II design and development program will produce the first lightning protected, fiberglass, General Aviation aircraft that is available as a kit. The results obtained so far in development testing of typical components of the aircraft kit, such as the wing and fuselage panels indicate that the lightning protection design methodology and materials chosen are capable of protecting such small composite airframes from lightning puncture and structural damage associated with severe threat lightning strikes. The primary objective of the program has been to develop a lightening protection design for full scale test airframe and verify its adequacy with full scale laboratory testing, thus enabling production and sale of owner-built, lightning-protected, Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, Inc. Glasair II airplanes. A second objective has been to provide lightning protection design guidelines for the General Aviation industry, and to enable these airplanes to meet lightening protection requirements for certification of small airplanes. This paper describes the protection design approaches and development testing results obtained thus far in the program, together with design methodology which can achieve the design goals listed above. The presentation of this paper will also include results of some of the full scale verification tests, which will have been completed by the time of this conference.

Wind-Driven Ecological Flow Regimes Downstream from Hydropower Dams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kern, J.; Characklis, G. W.

2012-12-01

Conventional hydropower can be turned on and off quicker and less expensively than thermal generation (coal, nuclear, or natural gas). These advantages enable hydropower utilities to respond to rapid fluctuations in energy supply and demand. More recently, a growing renewable energy sector has underlined the need for flexible generation capacity that can complement intermittent renewable resources such as wind power. While wind power entails lower variable costs than other types of generation, incorporating it into electric power systems can be problematic. Due to variable and unpredictable wind speeds, wind power is difficult to schedule and must be used when available. As a result, integrating large amounts of wind power into the grid may result in atypical, swiftly changing demand patterns for other forms of generation, placing a premium on sources that can be rapidly ramped up and down. Moreover, uncertainty in wind power forecasts will stipulate increased levels of 'reserve' generation capacity that can respond quickly if real-time wind supply is less than expected. These changes could create new hourly price dynamics for energy and reserves, altering the short-term financial signals that hydroelectric dam operators use to schedule water releases. Traditionally, hourly stream flow patterns below hydropower dams have corresponded in a very predictable manner to electricity demand, whose primary factors are weather (hourly temperature) and economic activity (workday hours). Wind power integration has the potential to yield more variable, less predictable flows at hydro dams, flows that at times could resemble reciprocal wind patterns. An existing body of research explores the impacts of standard, demand-following hydroelectric dams on downstream ecological flows; but weighing the benefits of increased reliance on wind power against further impacts to ecological flows may be a novel challenge for the environmental community. As a preliminary step in meeting this challenge, the following study was designed to investigate the potential for wind power integration to alter riparian flow regimes below hydroelectric dams. A hydrological model of a three-dam cascade in the Roanoke River basin (Virginia, USA) is interfaced with a simulated electricity market (i.e. a unit commitment problem) representing the Dominion Zone of PJM Interconnection. Incorporating forecasts of electricity demand, hydro capacity and wind availability, a mixed-integer optimization program minimizes the system cost of meeting hourly demand and reserve requirements by means of a diverse generation portfolio (e.g. nuclear, fossil, hydro, and biomass). A secondary 'balancing' energy market is executed if real-time wind generation is less than the day-ahead forecast, calling upon reserved generation resources to meet the supply shortfall. Hydropower release schedules are determined across a range of wind development scenarios (varying wind's fraction of total installed generating capacity, as well as its geographical source region). Flow regimes for each wind development scenario are compared against both historical and simulated flows under current operations (negligible wind power), as well as simulated natural flows (dam removal), in terms of ecologically relevant flow metrics. Results quantify the ability of wind power development to alter within-week stream flows downstream from hydropower dams.

Climate Change Impacts and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Effects on U.S. Hydropower Generation

EPA Science Inventory

Climate change will have potentially significant effects on hydropower generation due to changes in the magnitude and seasonality of river runoff and increases in reservoir evaporation. These physical impacts will in turn have economic consequences through both producer revenues ...

77 FR 64106 - Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Trade Policy Mission to Chile

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-18

... competitiveness of U.S. wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydropower, waste-to-energy, smart grid, and energy... development. Opportunities are expected in the wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydropower, and energy... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency...

Low-Energy, Low-Cost Production of Ethylene by Low- Temperature Oxidative Coupling of Methane

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Radaelli, Guido; Chachra, Gaurav; Jonnavittula, Divya

In this project, we develop a catalytic process technology for distributed small-scale production of ethylene by oxidative coupling of methane at low temperatures using an advanced catalyst. The Low Temperature Oxidative Coupling of Methane (LT-OCM) catalyst system is enabled by a novel chemical catalyst and process pioneered by Siluria, at private expense, over the last six years. Herein, we develop the LT-OCM catalyst system for distributed small-scale production of ethylene by identifying and addressing necessary process schemes, unit operations and process parameters that limit the economic viability and mass penetration of this technology to manufacture ethylene at small-scales. The outputmore » of this program is process concepts for small-scale LT-OCM catalyst based ethylene production, lab-scale verification of the novel unit operations adopted in the proposed concept, and an analysis to validate the feasibility of the proposed concepts.« less

Stability analysis of a run-of-river diversion hydropower plant with surge tank and spillway in the head pond.

PubMed

Sarasúa, José Ignacio; Elías, Paz; Martínez-Lucas, Guillermo; Pérez-Díaz, Juan Ignacio; Wilhelmi, José Román; Sánchez, José Ángel

2014-01-01

Run-of-river hydropower plants usually lack significant storage capacity; therefore, the more adequate control strategy would consist of keeping a constant water level at the intake pond in order to harness the maximum amount of energy from the river flow or to reduce the surface flooded in the head pond. In this paper, a standard PI control system of a run-of-river diversion hydropower plant with surge tank and a spillway in the head pond that evacuates part of the river flow plant is studied. A stability analysis based on the Routh-Hurwitz criterion is carried out and a practical criterion for tuning the gains of the PI controller is proposed. Conclusions about the head pond and surge tank areas are drawn from the stability analysis. Finally, this criterion is applied to a real hydropower plant in design state; the importance of considering the spillway dimensions and turbine characteristic curves for adequate tuning of the controller gains is highlighted.

Stability Analysis of a Run-of-River Diversion Hydropower Plant with Surge Tank and Spillway in the Head Pond

PubMed Central

Sarasúa, José Ignacio; Elías, Paz; Wilhelmi, José Román; Sánchez, José Ángel

2014-01-01

Run-of-river hydropower plants usually lack significant storage capacity; therefore, the more adequate control strategy would consist of keeping a constant water level at the intake pond in order to harness the maximum amount of energy from the river flow or to reduce the surface flooded in the head pond. In this paper, a standard PI control system of a run-of-river diversion hydropower plant with surge tank and a spillway in the head pond that evacuates part of the river flow plant is studied. A stability analysis based on the Routh-Hurwitz criterion is carried out and a practical criterion for tuning the gains of the PI controller is proposed. Conclusions about the head pond and surge tank areas are drawn from the stability analysis. Finally, this criterion is applied to a real hydropower plant in design state; the importance of considering the spillway dimensions and turbine characteristic curves for adequate tuning of the controller gains is highlighted. PMID:25405237

Watering Down Barriers to Using Hydropower through Fisheries Research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ham, Ken

Much of our work on clean energy is targeted at improving performance of hydropower, the largest source of renewable energy in the Pacific Northwest and the nation. PNNL experts in hydropower—from computer scientists to biologists and engineers—are helping to optimize the efficiency and environmental performance of hydroelectric plants. The Columbia River is the nation’s most important hydropower resource, producing 40 percent of the nation’s hydroelectric generation and up to 70 percent of the region’s power. At PNNL, Fisheries Biologist Ken Ham and others are working with stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest, the Army Corps of Engineers and DOE to ensuremore » that this resource continues to provide its many benefits while setting a new standard for environmental sustainability. As aging turbines are replaced in existing hydropower dams, computational modeling and state-of-the-art fisheries research combine to aid the design of a next-generation hydro turbine that meets or exceeds current biological performance standards and produces more power.« less

Exemplary Design Envelope Specification for Standard Modular Hydropower Technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Witt, Adam M.; Smith, Brennan T.; Tsakiris, Achilleas

Hydropower is an established, affordable renewable energy generation technology supplying nearly 18% of the electricity consumed globally. A hydropower facility interacts continuously with the surrounding water resource environment, causing alterations of varying magnitude in the natural flow of water, energy, fish, sediment, and recreation upstream and downstream. A universal challenge in facility design is balancing the extraction of useful energy and power system services from a stream with the need to maintain ecosystem processes and natural environmental function. On one hand, hydroelectric power is a carbon-free, renewable, and flexible asset to the power system. On the other, the disruption ofmore » longitudinal connectivity and the artificial barrier to aquatic movement created by hydraulic structures can produce negative impacts that stress fresh water environments. The growing need for carbon-free, reliable, efficient distributed energy sources suggests there is significant potential for hydropower projects that can deploy with low installed costs, enhanced ecosystem service offerings, and minimal disruptions of the stream environment.« less

A new framework for sustainable hydropower development project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johan, Kartina; Turan, Faiz Mohd; Gani, Nur Syazwani Abdul

2018-03-01

This project studies on the establishment of a new framework for sustainable hydropower development. A hydropower development is listed as one of the prescribed activities under the Environmental Quality Order 1987. Thus, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines must be referred to comply with the Department of Environment (DoE) requirements. In order to execute EIA, an assessment tool that will be utilized in the final evaluation phase must be determined. The selected assessment tool that will be used is Systematic Sustainability Assessment(SSA) which is a new integrated tool to evaluate the sustainability performance. A pilot run is conducted in five different departments within the Energy Company to validate the efficiency of the SSA tool. The parameters to be evaluated are constructed aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to maintain the sustainability features. Consequently, the performance level of the sustainability with respect to People, Planet and Profit (3P’s) is able to be discovered during evaluation phase in the hydropower development for continuous improvement.

Treatise on water hammer in hydropower standards and guidelines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergant, A.; Karney, B.; Pejović, S.; Mazij, J.

2014-03-01

This paper reviews critical water hammer parameters as they are presented in official hydropower standards and guidelines. A particular emphasize is given to a number of IEC standards and guidelines that are used worldwide. The paper critically assesses water hammer control strategies including operational scenarios (closing and opening laws), surge control devices (surge tank, pressure regulating valve, flywheel, etc.), redesign of the water conveyance system components (tunnel, penstock), or limitation of operating conditions (limited operating range) that are variably covered in standards and guidelines. Little information is given on industrial water hammer models and solutions elsewhere. These are briefly introduced and discussed in the light of capability (simple versus complex systems), availability of expertise (in house and/or commercial) and uncertainty. The paper concludes with an interesting water hammer case study referencing the rules and recommendations from existing hydropower standards and guidelines in a view of effective water hammer control. Recommendations are given for further work on development of a special guideline on water hammer (hydraulic transients) in hydropower plants.

Hydropower generation, flood control and dam cascades: A national assessment for Vietnam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen-Tien, Viet; Elliott, Robert J. R.; Strobl, Eric A.

2018-05-01

Vietnam is a country with diverse terrain and climatic conditions and a dependency on hydropower for a significant proportion of its power needs and as such, is particularly vulnerable to changes in climate. In this paper we apply SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) derived discharge simulation results coupled with regression analysis to estimate the performance of hydropower plants for Vietnam between 1995 and mid-2014 when both power supply and demand increased rapidly. Our approach is to examine the watershed formed from three large inter-boundary basins: The Red River, the Vietnam Coast and the Lower Mekong River, which have a total area of 977,964 km2. We then divide this area into 7,887 sub-basins with an average area of 131.6 km2 (based on level 12 of HydroSHEDS/HydroBASINS datasets) and 53,024 Hydrological Response Units (HRUs). Next we simulate river flow for the 40 largest hydropower plants across Vietnam. Our validation process demonstrates that the simulated flows are significantly correlated with the gauged inflows into these dams and are able to serve as a good proxy for the inflows into hydropower dams in our baseline energy regression, which captures 87.7% of the variation in monthly power generation. In other results we estimate that large dams sacrifice on average around 18.2% of their contemporaneous production for the purpose of flood control. When we assess Vietnam's current alignment of dams we find that the current cascades of large hydropower dams appear to be reasonably efficient: each MWh/day increase in upstream generation adds 0.146 MWh/day to downstream generation. The study provides evidence for the multiple benefits of a national system of large hydropower dams using a cascade design. Such a system may help overcome future adverse impacts from changes in climate conditions. However, our results show that there is still room for improvement in the harmonization of cascades in some basins. Finally, possible adverse hydro-ecological impacts due to the proliferation of large upstream dams, including those located beyond Vietnam's border, need to be carefully considered.

Performance assessment of deterministic and probabilistic weather predictions for the short-term optimization of a tropical hydropower reservoir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mainardi Fan, Fernando; Schwanenberg, Dirk; Alvarado, Rodolfo; Assis dos Reis, Alberto; Naumann, Steffi; Collischonn, Walter

2016-04-01

Hydropower is the most important electricity source in Brazil. During recent years, it accounted for 60% to 70% of the total electric power supply. Marginal costs of hydropower are lower than for thermal power plants, therefore, there is a strong economic motivation to maximize its share. On the other hand, hydropower depends on the availability of water, which has a natural variability. Its extremes lead to the risks of power production deficits during droughts and safety issues in the reservoir and downstream river reaches during flood events. One building block of the proper management of hydropower assets is the short-term forecast of reservoir inflows as input for an online, event-based optimization of its release strategy. While deterministic forecasts and optimization schemes are the established techniques for the short-term reservoir management, the use of probabilistic ensemble forecasts and stochastic optimization techniques receives growing attention and a number of researches have shown its benefit. The present work shows one of the first hindcasting and closed-loop control experiments for a multi-purpose hydropower reservoir in a tropical region in Brazil. The case study is the hydropower project (HPP) Três Marias, located in southeast Brazil. The HPP reservoir is operated with two main objectives: (i) hydroelectricity generation and (ii) flood control at Pirapora City located 120 km downstream of the dam. In the experiments, precipitation forecasts based on observed data, deterministic and probabilistic forecasts with 50 ensemble members of the ECMWF are used as forcing of the MGB-IPH hydrological model to generate streamflow forecasts over a period of 2 years. The online optimization depends on a deterministic and multi-stage stochastic version of a model predictive control scheme. Results for the perfect forecasts show the potential benefit of the online optimization and indicate a desired forecast lead time of 30 days. In comparison, the use of actual forecasts with shorter lead times of up to 15 days shows the practical benefit of actual operational data. It appears that the use of stochastic optimization combined with ensemble forecasts leads to a significant higher level of flood protection without compromising the HPP's energy production.

Multi-Model Assessment of Global Hydropower and Cooling Water Discharge Potential Under Climate Change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

van Vliet, M. T. H.; van Beek, L. P. H.; Eisener, S.; Wada, Y.; Bierkens, M. F. P.

2016-01-01

Worldwide, 98% of total electricity is currently produced by thermoelectric power and hydropower. Climate change is expected to directly impact electricity supply, in terms of both water availability for hydropower generation and cooling water usage for thermoelectric power. Improved understanding of how climate change may impact the availability and temperature of water resources is therefore of major importance. Here we use a multi-model ensemble to show the potential impacts of climate change on global hydropower and cooling water discharge potential. For the first time, combined projections of streamflow and water temperature were produced with three global hydrological models (GHMs) to account for uncertainties in the structure and parametrization of these GHMs in both water availability and water temperature. The GHMs were forced with bias-corrected output of five general circulation models (GCMs) for both the lowest and highest representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The ensemble projections of streamflow and water temperature were then used to quantify impacts on gross hydropower potential and cooling water discharge capacity of rivers worldwide. We show that global gross hydropower potential is expected to increase between +2.4% (GCM-GHM ensemble mean for RCP 2.6) and +6.3% (RCP 8.5) for the 2080s compared to 1971-2000. The strongest increases in hydropower potential are expected for Central Africa, India, central Asia and the northern high-latitudes, with 18-33% of the world population living in these areas by the 2080s. Global mean cooling water discharge capacity is projected to decrease by 4.5-15% (2080s). The largest reductions are found for the United States, Europe, eastern Asia, and southern parts of South America, Africa and Australia, where strong water temperature increases are projected combined with reductions in mean annual streamflow. These regions are expected to affect 11-14% (for RCP2.6 and the shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP)1, SSP2, SSP4) and 41-51% (RCP8.5-SSP3, SSP5) of the world population by the 2080s.

Climate Vulnerability of Hydro-power infrastructure in the Eastern African Power Pool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sridharan, Vignesh

2017-04-01

At present there is around 6000 MW of installed hydropower capacity in the Eastern African power pool (EAPP)[1]. With countries aggressively planning to achieve the Sustainable development goal (SDG) of ensuring access to affordable electricity for all, a three-fold increase in hydropower capacity is expected by 2040 [1]. Most of the existing and planned infrastructure lie inside the Nile River Basin. The latest assessment report (AR 5) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates a high level of climatic uncertainty in the Nile Basin. The Climate Moisture index (CMI) for the Eastern Nile region and the Nile Equatorial lakes varies significantly across the different General Circulation Models (GCM)[2]. Such high uncertainty casts a shadow on the plans to expand hydropower capacity, doubting whether hydropower expansion can contribute to the goal of improving access to electricity or end up as sunk investments. In this assessment, we analyze adaptation strategies for national energy systems in the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP), which minimize the regret that could potentially arise from impacts of a changed climate. An energy systems model of the EAPP is developed representing national electricity supply infrastructure. Cross border transmission and hydropower infrastructure is defined at individual project level. The energy systems model is coupled with a water systems management model of the Nile River Basin that calculates the water availability at different hydropower infrastructures under a range of climate scenarios. The results suggest that a robust adaptation strategy consisting of investments in cross border electricity transmission infrastructure and diversifying sources of electricity supply will require additional investments of USD 4.2 billion by 2050. However, this leads to fuel and operational cost savings of up to USD 22.6 billion, depending on the climate scenario. [1] "Platts, 2016. World Electric Power Plants Database," World Electric Power Plants Database. [Online]. Available: http://www.platts.com/Products/worldelectricpowerplantsdatabase. [Accessed: 01-Mar-2016]. [2] Brent Boehlert, Kenneth M. Strzepek, David Groves, and Bruce Hewitson, Chris Jack, "Climate Change Projections in Africa-Chapter 3," in Enhancing the Climate Resilience of Africa's Infrastructure : The Power and Water Sectors, Washington DC: The World Bank, 2016, p. 219.

Movement, Transport, and Scour of Particulate Organic Matter and Aquatic Invertebrates Downstream from a Peaking Hydropower Project.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-05-01

tigations, Clemson, S. C . 29631 and U. S. Army ED- It. REPORT DATE gineer Waterways Experiment Station, Environmental May 1983 Laboratory, P. 0. Box 631...ON eport) Washington, D. C . 20314 Unclassified I&. NMITORING AGENCY NAME & ADORVESS( Idfieuf orn o C ..,bDIMi OW~~ IS. DECkASFCTO(ONRDN W DISTRIBUTION...Reservoir Research Program, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice, Clemson, S. C .; and Drs. John Nestler and Gary Saul, EL, WES. Preparation of this report

Lock and Dam Number 8 Hydropower Study; Mississippi River Near LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Supplement.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-01-01

unit used in scheme 3 is a standardized module consisting of an axial flow turbine , a speed increasing gear set, and a generator combined in a short...the flow and generating head ranges associated with specific turbine generator sizes, the program produces annual and monthly flow -duration curves and...open flume turbine passing a rated flow of 14O0 eta at a rated head of 9.75 feat. Cost estimates were made for two and four unit plants having

Hydropower: A Regulatory Guide to Permitting and Licensing in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCoy, Gilbert A.

1992-12-01

The design, construction and operation of a hydropower project can result in many potential impacts. These potential impacts are of concern to a host of federal, state, and local authorities. Early consultation with land and water management, fish and wildlife resource protection, and health and human safety-oriented agencies should occur to determine specific concerns and study requirements for each proposed project. This Guide to Permitting and Licensing outlines the characteristic features of attractive hydropower sites; summarizes an array of developmental constraints; illustrates potential environmental impacts and concerns; and summarizes all federal, state, and local permitting and licensing requirements.

Hydropower : A Regulatory Guide to Permitting and Licensing in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCoy, Gilbert A.

1992-12-01

The design, construction and operation of a hydropower project can result in many potential impacts. These potential impacts are of concern to a host of federal, state, and local authorities. Early consultation with land and water management, fish and wildlife resource protection, and health and human safety-oriented agencies should occur to determine specific concerns and study requirements for each proposed project. This Guide to Permitting and Licensing outlines the characteristic features of attractive hydropower sites; summarizes an array of developmental constraints; illustrates potential environmental impacts and concerns; and summarizes all federal, state, and local permitting and licensing requirements.

Simulation and Modeling Capability for Standard Modular Hydropower Technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stewart, Kevin M.; Smith, Brennan T.; Witt, Adam M.

Grounded in the stakeholder-validated framework established in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s SMH Exemplary Design Envelope Specification, this report on Simulation and Modeling Capability for Standard Modular Hydropower (SMH) Technology provides insight into the concepts, use cases, needs, gaps, and challenges associated with modeling and simulating SMH technologies. The SMH concept envisions a network of generation, passage, and foundation modules that achieve environmentally compatible, cost-optimized hydropower using standardization and modularity. The development of standardized modeling approaches and simulation techniques for SMH (as described in this report) will pave the way for reliable, cost-effective methods for technology evaluation, optimization, and verification.

Dynamic evolution characteristics of a fractional order hydropower station system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Xiang; Chen, Diyi; Yan, Donglin; Xu, Beibei; Wang, Xiangyu

2018-01-01

This paper investigates the dynamic evolution characteristics of the hydropower station by introducing the fractional order damping forces. A careful analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the generator shaft system is carried out under different values of fractional order. It turns out the vibration state of the axis coordinates has a certain evolution law with the increase of the fractional order. Significantly, the obtained law exists in the horizontal evolution and vertical evolution of the dynamical behaviors. Meanwhile, some interesting dynamical phenomena were found in this process. The outcomes of this study enrich the nonlinear dynamic theory from the engineering practice of hydropower stations.

Environmental Effects of Storage Preservation Practices: Controlled Flushing of Fine Sediment from a Small Hydropower Reservoir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Espa, Paolo; Castelli, Elena; Crosa, Giuseppe; Gentili, Gaetano

2013-07-01

Sediment flushing may be effective in mitigating loss of reservoir storage due to siltation, but flushing must be controlled to limit the impact on the downstream environment. A reliable prediction of the environmental effects of sediment flushing is hindered by the limited scientific information currently available. Consequently, there may be some controversy as regards to management decisions, planning the work, and monitoring strategies. This paper summarizes the main results of a monitoring campaign on the stream below a small alpine hydropower reservoir subjected to annual flushing between 2006 and 2009. The removed sediment was essentially silt, and the suspended solid concentration (SSC) of the discharged water was controlled to alleviate downstream impact. Control was achieved through hydraulic regulation and mechanical digging, alternating daytime sediment evacuation, and nocturnal clear water release. The four operations lasted about two weeks each and had an average SSC of about 4 g L-1. Maximum values of SSC were generally kept below 10 g L-1. Downstream impact was quantified through sampling of fish fauna (brown trout) and macroinvertebrate in the final reach of the effluent stream. The benthic community was severely impaired by the flushing operations, but recovered to pre-flushing values in a few months. As expected, the impact on brown trout was heavier on juveniles. While data biasing due to fish removal and re-stocking cannot be ruled out, the fish community seems to have reached a state of equilibrium characterized by a lower density than was measured before the flushing operations.

Environmental effects of storage preservation practices: controlled flushing of fine sediment from a small hydropower reservoir.

PubMed

Espa, Paolo; Castelli, Elena; Crosa, Giuseppe; Gentili, Gaetano

2013-07-01

Sediment flushing may be effective in mitigating loss of reservoir storage due to siltation, but flushing must be controlled to limit the impact on the downstream environment. A reliable prediction of the environmental effects of sediment flushing is hindered by the limited scientific information currently available. Consequently, there may be some controversy as regards to management decisions, planning the work, and monitoring strategies. This paper summarizes the main results of a monitoring campaign on the stream below a small alpine hydropower reservoir subjected to annual flushing between 2006 and 2009. The removed sediment was essentially silt, and the suspended solid concentration (SSC) of the discharged water was controlled to alleviate downstream impact. Control was achieved through hydraulic regulation and mechanical digging, alternating daytime sediment evacuation, and nocturnal clear water release. The four operations lasted about two weeks each and had an average SSC of about 4 g L(-1). Maximum values of SSC were generally kept below 10 g L(-1). Downstream impact was quantified through sampling of fish fauna (brown trout) and macroinvertebrate in the final reach of the effluent stream. The benthic community was severely impaired by the flushing operations, but recovered to pre-flushing values in a few months. As expected, the impact on brown trout was heavier on juveniles. While data biasing due to fish removal and re-stocking cannot be ruled out, the fish community seems to have reached a state of equilibrium characterized by a lower density than was measured before the flushing operations.

78 FR 79433 - Mahoning Hydropower, LLC, Ohio, Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-30

... Hydropower, LLC, Ohio, Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (Commission or FERC) regulations.... Staff prepared an environmental assessment (EA), which analyzes the potential environmental effects of...

JPRS Report, Science & Technology China: Energy

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-06-24

HYDROPOWER Speeding Up Hydropower Construction Through Improved Investment Conditions [Yang Zhirong, Qu Shiyuan , et ai; ZHONGGUO NENGYUAN, 25 Apr 92] 2...Beijing ZHONGGUO NENGYUAN [ENERGY OF CHINA] in Chinese No 4, 25 Apr 92 pp 4-7 [Article by Yang Zhirong [2799 1807 2837], Qu Shiyuan [3255 2514

Apiculture de Petite Eschelle (Small Scale Beekeeping). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, Curtis

This French-language manual is designed to assist Peace Corps volunteers in French-speaking countries in the implementation of small-scale beekeeping programs as a tool for development. Addressed in the individual chapters are bees and humans; project planning; the types and habits of bees; the essence of beekeeping; bee space and beehives;…

Analysis on regulation strategies for extending service life of hydropower turbines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, W.; Norrlund, P.; Yang, J.

2016-11-01

Since a few years, there has been a tendency that hydropower turbines experience fatigue to a greater extent, due to increasingly more regulation movements of governor actuators. The aim of this paper is to extend the service life of hydropower turbines, by reasonably decreasing the guide vane (GV) movements with appropriate regulation strategies, e.g. settings of PI (proportional-integral) governor parameters and controller filters. The accumulated distance and number of GV movements are the two main indicators of this study. The core method is to simulate the long-term GV opening of Francis turbines with MATLAB/Simulink, based on a sequence of one-month measurements of the Nordic grid frequency. Basic theoretical formulas are also discussed and compared to the simulation results, showing reasonable correspondence. Firstly, a model of a turbine governor is discussed and verified, based on on-site measurements of a Swedish hydropower plant. Then, the influence of governor parameters is discussed. Effects of different settings of controller filters (e.g. dead zone, floating dead zone and linear filter) are also examined. Moreover, a change in GV movement might affect the quality of the frequency control. This is also monitored via frequency deviation characteristics, determined by elementary simulations of the Nordic power system. The results show how the regulation settings affect the GV movements and frequency quality, supplying suggestions for optimizing the hydropower turbine operation for decreasing the wear and tear.

Warm Season Storms, Floods, and Tributary Sand Inputs below Glen Canyon Dam: Investigating Salience to Adaptive Management in the Context of a 10-Year Long Controlled Flooding Experiment in Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, S.; Melis, T. S.; Topping, D. J.; Pulwarty, R. S.; Eischeid, J.

2013-12-01

The planning and decision processes in the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP) strive to balance numerous, often competing, objectives, such as, water supply, hydropower generation, low flow maintenance, maximizing conservation of downstream tributary sand supply, endangered native fish, and other sociocultural resources of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon National Park. In this context, use of monitored and predictive information on the warm season floods (at point-to-regional scales) has been identified as lead-information for a new 10-year long controlled flooding experiment (termed the High-Flow Experiment Protocol) intended to determine management options for rebuilding and maintaining sandbars in Grand Canyon; an adaptive strategy that can potentially facilitate improved planning and dam operations. In this work, we focus on a key concern identified by the GCDAMP, related to the timing and volume of tributary sand input from the Paria and Little Colorado Rivers (located 26 and 124 km below the dam, respectively) into the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. Episodic and intraseasonal variations (with links to equatorial and sub-tropical Pacific sea surface temperature variability) in the southwest hydroclimatology are investigated to understand the magnitude, timing and spatial scales of warm season floods from this relatively small, but prolific sand producing drainage of the semi-arid Colorado Plateau. The coupled variations of the flood-driven sediment input (magnitude and timing) from these two drainages into the Colorado River are also investigated. The physical processes, including diagnosis of storms and moisture sources, are mapped alongside the planning and decision processes for the ongoing experimental flood releases from the Glen Canyon Dam which are aimed at achieving restoration and maintenance of sandbars and instream ecology. The GCDAMP represents one of the most visible and widely recognized adaptive management efforts in the world to manage resources under growing environmental uncertainty as climate change and global warming continues.

Key factors for the implementation of successful, stand-alone village electrification schemes in Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez-Campos, Teodoro

The hypothesis of this work is that there are social, financial, technical, managerial institutional and political key factors that may either support or prevent the success of small stand alone energy systems in rural areas. This research work aims at contributing to the identification of such factors and study their relevance to the performance and sustainability of stand alone energy systems in rural areas; to meet its purpose, a wide range of literature was reviewed including rural electrification programmes and projects, research and development projects on access to electricity in rural areas, impact studies and others, and a field research survey was done the Andes and Upper Jungle regions in Peru. Nineteen possible critical factors were identified, thirteen with relevance at the local context (the community or village), and six with relevance at the national (or wider) context. From literature review it was found that the possible local critical factors were relevant only to four categories of factors instead of the six considered initially (i.e. social, financial, technological and managerial): the other two categories, political and institutional were found to be more relevant to the national context, therefore those were included in the group of possible critical factors of wider context. A series of questionnaires were designed to collect field data information, which was later used to analyse and establish the relation of each identified factor with the success of the systems studied. The survey research was implemented in 14 villages, 7 with small diesel sets and 7 with small hydropower schemes, all spread in the Andes and Upper Jungle of Peru, which were carefully selected to be representative of regions with isolated stand alone systems and with different socioeconomic background. Out of the 13 possible critical factors of local context, it was found that only 3 are really critical, the others are important but not critical; one of them (technical assistance) was found to be closely linked to national capacity, therefore for practical reasons both are considered as one critical factor or wider context. Although more research study is needed to establish a more clearer result on the factors of wider context (national context), it was found that out of the 6 factors of wider context only one appears to be critical, the other 5 are important but not critical. Therefore the summary of critical factors is as follows: a) Critical Factors of Local Context o Management o Local capacity b) Critical Factors of National Context o Technical Support/national capacity On the local factors, management appears to be the most critical of all factors, because with good management, most of the other factors can be overcome. It was also found that "The small enterprise model" tested by Practical Action on small scale hydropower schemes is proving to be successful and other organisations are starting to use it in different contexts. Therefore future research is recommended on this particular management model in order to be useful for rural electrification programmes based on decentralised energy generation systems.

Optical/IR from ground

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strom, Stephen; Sargent, Wallace L. W.; Wolff, Sidney; Ahearn, Michael F.; Angel, J. Roger; Beckwith, Steven V. W.; Carney, Bruce W.; Conti, Peter S.; Edwards, Suzan; Grasdalen, Gary

1991-01-01

Optical/infrared (O/IR) astronomy in the 1990's is reviewed. The following subject areas are included: research environment; science opportunities; technical development of the 1980's and opportunities for the 1990's; and ground-based O/IR astronomy outside the U.S. Recommendations are presented for: (1) large scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for large O/IR telescopes); (2) medium scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for high angular resolution; Priority 2: a new generation of 4-m class telescopes); (3) small scale programs (Priority 1: near-IR and optical all-sky surveys; Priority 2: a National Astrometric Facility); and (4) infrastructure issues (develop, purchase, and distribute optical CCDs and infrared arrays; a program to support large optics technology; a new generation of large filled aperture telescopes; a program to archive and disseminate astronomical databases; and a program for training new instrumentalists)

Using Microenterprise Programs in the Rural United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, George

2000-01-01

Directed at the chronically unemployed, poor single parents, and welfare recipients, microenterprise programs provide access to loans and technical training for the express purpose of creating small-scale self-sufficient entrepreneurs no longer dependent on public support. Lessons from international microenterprise programs, federal funding…

78 FR 61999 - Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013; Supplemental Notice of Workshop

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-10

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. AD13-9-000] Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013; Supplemental Notice of Workshop As announced in the Notices issued on September 3, 2013 and September 18, 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission...

Hydropower Research | Water Power | NREL

Science.gov Websites

facilities are available to support hydropower technology validation and design optimization. Photo of water optimized prior to expensive and time-consuming open-water validation. Photo of electric power lines at -machinery. Using these methodologies, tools, and direct industry data, they analyze the near- and long-term

77 FR 30308 - Proposed Renewal of Information Collection: Alternatives Process in Hydropower Licensing

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-22

... the Alternatives Process in Hydropower Licensing, OMB Control Number 1094-0001. FOR FURTHER... Interior, and Commerce collect the information covered by 1094-0001. Under FPA section 33, the Secretary of... Control Number: 1094-0001. Current Expiration Date: September 30, 2012. Type of Review: Information...

75 FR 34725 - Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-18

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13795-000] Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications; Mahoning Hydropower, LLC June 10, 2010. On May 25, 2010, Mahoning Hydropower, LLC filed an...

76 FR 46287 - Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-02

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 2047-049] Erie Boulevard Hydropower, L.P.; Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (Commission or FERC) regulations...

76 FR 1613 - Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-11

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13877-000] Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To Intervene, and Competing Applications January 4, 2011. On November 4, 2010, Mahoning Hydro, LLC...

Exposure assessment in SMES: a low-cost approach to bring OHS services to small-scale enterprises.

PubMed

Seneviratne, Mahinda; Phoon, Wai On

2006-01-01

There is increased attention to improving occupational health and safety in small to medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Workers Health Centre, a not-for-profit OHS service in western Sydney, assessed workplace exposures in two SMEs following intervention by regulatory agencies. A low-cost monitoring program for noise, airbone dust, fibers and chemicals was conducted at these two metal working industry workplaces. Results showed that exposure to the hazards were above the statutory limits and there was generally an unhealthy access to OHS information by the predominantly immigrant or low literate worker population, were identified. The potential for using a program of low-cost exposure assessments, accompanied by a strategy to provide OHSs information for workers in small-scale enterprises, is discussed.

Rocket University at KSC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Steven J.

2014-01-01

"Rocket University" is an exciting new initiative at Kennedy Space Center led by NASA's Engineering and Technology Directorate. This hands-on experience has been established to develop, refine & maintain targeted flight engineering skills to enable the Agency and KSC strategic goals. Through "RocketU", KSC is developing a nimble, rapid flight engineering life cycle systems knowledge base. Ongoing activities in RocketU develop and test new technologies and potential customer systems through small scale vehicles, build and maintain flight experience through balloon and small-scale rocket missions, and enable a revolving fresh perspective of engineers with hands on expertise back into the large scale NASA programs, providing a more experienced multi-disciplined set of systems engineers. This overview will define the Program, highlight aspects of the training curriculum, and identify recent accomplishments and activities.

An approach to modeling and optimization of integrated renewable energy system (ires)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maheshwari, Zeel

The purpose of this study was to cost optimize electrical part of IRES (Integrated Renewable Energy Systems) using HOMER and maximize the utilization of resources using MATLAB programming. IRES is an effective and a viable strategy that can be employed to harness renewable energy resources to energize remote rural areas of developing countries. The resource- need matching, which is the basis for IRES makes it possible to provide energy in an efficient and cost effective manner. Modeling and optimization of IRES for a selected study area makes IRES more advantageous when compared to hybrid concepts. A remote rural area with a population of 700 in 120 households and 450 cattle is considered as an example for cost analysis and optimization. Mathematical models for key components of IRES such as biogas generator, hydropower generator, wind turbine, PV system and battery banks are developed. A discussion of the size of water reservoir required is also presented. Modeling of IRES on the basis of need to resource and resource to need matching is pursued to help in optimum use of resources for the needs. Fixed resources such as biogas and water are used in prioritized order whereas movable resources such as wind and solar can be used simultaneously for different priorities. IRES is cost optimized for electricity demand using HOMER software that is developed by the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory). HOMER optimizes configuration for electrical demand only and does not consider other demands such as biogas for cooking and water for domestic and irrigation purposes. Hence an optimization program based on the need-resource modeling of IRES is performed in MATLAB. Optimization of the utilization of resources for several needs is performed. Results obtained from MATLAB clearly show that the available resources can fulfill the demand of the rural areas. Introduction of IRES in rural communities has many socio-economic implications. It brings about improvement in living environment and community welfare by supplying the basic needs such as biogas for cooking, water for domestic and irrigation purposes and electrical energy for lighting, communication, cold storage, educational and small- scale industrial purposes.

Mid and long-term optimize scheduling of cascade hydro-power stations based on modified GA-POA method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jiqing; Yang, Xiong

2018-06-01

In this paper, to explore the efficiency and rationality of the cascade combined generation, a cascade combined optimal model with the maximum generating capacity is established, and solving the model by the modified GA-POA method. It provides a useful reference for the joint development of cascade hydro-power stations in large river basins. The typical annual runoff data are selected to calculate the difference between the calculated results under different representative years. The results show that the cascade operation of cascaded hydro-power stations can significantly increase the overall power generation of cascade and ease the flood risk caused by concentration of flood season.

La Apaicultura de Pequena Escala (Small Scale Beekeeping). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-25.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, Curtis

This Spanish-language manual is designed to assist Peace Corps volunteers in Spanish-speaking countries in the implementation of small-scale beekeeping programs as a tool for development. Addressed in the individual chapters are bees and humans; project planning; the types and habits of bees; the essence of beekeeping; bee space and beehives;…

Overview and current status of DOE/UPVG`s TEAM-UP Program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hester, S.

1995-11-01

An overview is given of the Utility Photovoltaic Group. The mission is to accelerate the use of small-scale and large scale applications of photovoltaics for the benefit of the electric utilities and their customers.

Alternative blade materials for technical and ecological optimization of a hydraulic pressure machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwyzer, Olivier; Saenger, Nicole

2016-11-01

The Hydraulic Pressure Machine (HPM) is an energy converter to exploit head differences between 0.5 and 2.5 m in small streams and irrigation canals. Previous investigations show that efficiencies above 60% are possible. Several case studies indicate good continuity for aquatic life (e.g. fish) and bed load for the technology. The technology is described as an economically and ecologically viable option for small scale hydropower generation. Primary goal of this research is to improve the HPM blade design regarding its continuity properties by maintaining good efficiency rates. This is done by modifying the blade tip and testing within a large physical model under laboratory condition. Blade tips from steel (conventional - reference case) and a combination of EPDM rubber and steel as sandwich construction (rubber, steel, rubber - adhesive layered) are tested and compared. Both materials reach similar values for hydraulic efficiency (approx. 58%) and mechanical power output (approx. 220 W). The variation of different gap sizes pointed out the importance of small clearance gaps to reach high efficiencies. For assessing the two blade tip materials regarding continuity for aquatic life, fish dummies were led through the wheel. Analysis of slow motion video of dummies hit by the blade show significant advantages for the EPDM blade tip. The EPDM rubber allows to bend and thus reduces the shock and the probability for cuts on the fish dummy. It was shown that blade tips from EPDM have certain advantages regarding continuity compared to standard blade tips from steel. No compromise regarding energy production had to be made. These results from the HPM can be transferred to breast shot water wheel and may be applied for new and retrofitting projects.

78 FR 55251 - Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013; Notice of Workshop

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-10

... Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013; Notice of Workshop The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or... 6 of the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013. Participants should be prepared to discuss... at https://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/efficiency-act-10-02-13-form.asp by September 25, 2013...

77 FR 63301 - Juneau Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Draft License Application and Preliminary Draft Environmental...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-16

.... 791(a)-825(r). h. Applicant Contact: Duff Mitchell, Business Manager, Juneau Hydropower, Inc., P.O... information at the end of your comments. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at FERCOnline... access the document. For assistance, contact FERC Online Support. You may also register online at http...

78 FR 12050 - Juneau Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Successive Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-21

...-diameter stream diversion tunnel that would be converted to reservoir outlet works after project... afterbay to an outlet structure on a tributary to Sweetheart Creek; and an existing tributary stream... Mitchell, Business Manager, Juneau Hydropower, Inc. P.O. Box 22775, Juneau, AK 99802; email: duff.mitchell...

78 FR 2990 - Juneau Hydropower, Inc.; Notice of Successive Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-15

...-diameter stream diversion tunnel that would be converted to reservoir outlet works after project... afterbay to an outlet structure on a tributary to Sweetheart Creek; and an existing tributary stream... Mitchell, Business Manager, Juneau Hydropower, Inc. P.O. Box 22775, Juneau, AK 99802; email: duff.mitchell...

A Student Activity for the James Bay Hydro Project. The Geography Teacher.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green-Milberg, Patricia

1999-01-01

Provides activities for grades 6 to 8 that will promote student awareness and understanding of the use of hydropower in Canada, the benefits and drawbacks to hydropower, and also the drawbacks of electricity transmission lines. Explains that the activities focus on the James Bay Hydro Project in Canada. (CMK)

78 FR 61987 - Corbett Water District; Notice of Preliminary Determination of a Qualifying Conduit Hydropower...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-09

...), as amended by HREA.... The facility is constructed, operated, or maintained Y for the generation of... Conduit Hydropower Facility Satisfies (Y/ Statutory provision Description N) FPA 30(a)(3)(A), as amended by HREA....... The conduit the facility uses is a tunnel, canal, Y pipeline, aqueduct, flume, ditch...

Benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators of biological condition below hydropower dams on west slope Sierra Nevada streams, California, USA

EPA Science Inventory

Over 50 hydropower dams in California will undergo relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the next 15 years. An interpretive framework for biological data collected by relicensing studies is lacking. This study developed a multi-metric index of biotic...

76 FR 58837 - Notice of Intent to Accept Proposals, Select Lessee, and Contract for Hydroelectric Power...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-22

... a Federal Government facility. Depending on the economic viability of the proposed hydropower.... Identify proposed methods of financing the hydropower development. An economic analysis should be presented... and provide for long-term operation and maintenance; and (3) best share the economic benefits of the...

76 FR 57731 - Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions To...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-16

... Competing Applications; McKay Dam Hydropower, LLC On May 31, 2011, McKay Dam Hydropower, LLC filed an... study the feasibility of the McKay Dam Hydroelectric Project (project) to be located at the McKay dam near Pendleton in Umatilla County, [[Page 57732

77 FR 41396 - Mahoning Hydropower, LLC; Notice of Application Accepted for Filing With the Commision...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-13

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 13953-002] Mahoning... available for public inspection. a. Type of Application: New Minor License. b. Project No.: 13953-002. c. Date filed: November 22, 2011. d. Applicant: Mahoning Hydropower, LLC. e. Name of Project: Lake Milton...

75 FR 71122 - Erie Boulevard Hydropower L.P.; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental Site Review

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-22

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 7518-012--New York] Erie Boulevard Hydropower L.P.; Notice of Scoping Meetings and Environmental Site Review November 15, 2010. Commission staff will be conducting two public scoping meetings and an environmental site review in support...

75 FR 8321 - Coastal Hydropower LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-24

... LLC; Notice of Preliminary Permit Application Accepted for Filing and Soliciting Comments, Motions to Intervene, and Competing Applications February 18, 2010. On November 5, 2009, Coastal Hydropower LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, pursuant to section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act, proposing...

18 CFR 2.23 - Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts. 2.23 Section 2.23 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL...

18 CFR 2.23 - Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts. 2.23 Section 2.23 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL...

18 CFR 2.23 - Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts. 2.23 Section 2.23 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL...

18 CFR 2.23 - Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate cumulative impacts. 2.23 Section 2.23 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY GENERAL RULES GENERAL...