A recent agreement between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the State
of Colorado seeks to streamline regulatory review of small, low-head hydropower (micro
hydropower) projects located in constrained waterways, (Governor’s Energy Office, 2010). This
regulatory change will likely encourage the development of micro hydropower projects,
primarily as upgrades to existing infrastructure. Previous studies of low-head hydropower
projects have estimated the combined capacity of micro hydro projects in Colorado between 664
MW to 5,003 MW (Connor, A.M., et al. 1998; Hall, D.G., et al. 2004, 2006). However, these
studies did not include existing hydraulic structures in irrigation canals as possible hydropower
sites. A Colorado Department of Agriculture study (Applegate Group, 2011) identified existing
infrastructure categories for low head hydropower development in irrigation systems, which
included diversion structures, line chutes, vertical drops, pipelines, check structures and reservoir
outlets. However, an accurate assessment of hydropower capacity from existing infrastructures
could not be determined due to low survey responses from irrigation water districts.
The current study represents the first step in a comprehensive field study to quantify the
type and quantity of irrigation infrastructure for potential upgrade to support micro hydropower
production. Field surveys were conducted at approximately 230 sites in 6 of Colorado’s 7
hydrographic divisions at existing hydraulic control structures. The United States Bureau of
Reclamation contributed approximately 330 additional sample sites from the 17 western states.
The work presented here describes a novel method of identifying geospatial metrics to support an
estimation of total site count and resource availability of potential micro hydropower. The
proposed technique is general in nature and could be utilized to assess micro hydropower
resources in any region.
