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- Conventional Hydro
TIP 345: Advanced Visualization for Improving State Awareness for the BPA Power System
Lead Companies
BPA/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Alstom Grid USDOE
Lead Researcher (s)
- Scott Winner, BPA
The project developed advanced user-centric modular visualization tools to help present critical information from a large amount of multidimensional data in an effective way for improved power system state awareness. The project demonstrated the visualization tools through examples from pressing challenges for hydro operations as they integrate 15-minute scheduling. Probabilistic flow and load forecasting was also achieved.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Optimization
Status
complete
Completion Date
2017
- Conventional Hydro
TIP 416: CEATI – Hydropower Operations and Planning Program (HOPIG)
Lead Companies
CEATI
Lead Researcher (s)
- Erik Pytlak, BPA
The long term strategic direction of this group will be to develop new and innovative technological approaches and options to support the role of the water manager in managing and enhancing the underlying fundamental value of the industry, and to provide a knowledge-based leading edge technological resource to assist the hydropower industry in meeting its many new challenges.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
TIP 417: CEATI – Hydropower Operations and Planning Technical Program Services
Lead Companies
CEATI
Lead Researcher (s)
- Erik Pytlak, BPA
The long term strategic direction of this group will be to develop new and innovative technological approaches and options to support the role of the water manager in managing and enhancing the underlying fundamental value of the industry, and to provide a knowledge-based leading edge technological resource to assist the hydropower industry in meeting its many new challenges.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Toward Improved Predictions in Ungauged Basins: Exploiting the Power of Machine Learning
Lead Companies
Upstream Tech
Lead Researcher (s)
- Frederik Kratzert
- Daniel Klotz
- Mathew Herrnegger
Long short‐term memory (LSTM) networks offer unprecedented accuracy for prediction in ungauged basins. We trained and tested several LSTMs on 531 basins from the CAMELS data set using k‐fold validation, so that predictions were made in basins that supplied no training data. The training and test data set included ∼30 years of daily rainfall‐runoff data from catchments in the United States ranging in size from 4 to 2,000 km2 with aridity index from 0.22 to 5.20, and including 12 of the 13 IGPB vegetated land cover classifications. This effectively “ungauged” model was benchmarked over a 15‐year validation period against the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC‐SMA) model and also against the NOAA National Water Model reanalysis. SAC‐SMA was calibrated separately for each basin using 15 years of daily data. The out‐of‐sample LSTM had higher median Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiencies across the 531 basins (0.69) than either the calibrated SAC‐SMA (0.64) or the National Water Model (0.58). This indicates that there is (typically) sufficient information in available catchment attributes data about similarities and differences between catchment‐level rainfall‐runoff behaviors to provide out‐of‐sample simulations that are generally more accurate than current models under ideal (i.e., calibrated) conditions. We found evidence that adding physical constraints to the LSTM models might improve simulations, which we suggest motivates future research related to physics‐guided machine learning.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
complete
Completion Date
2019
- Pumped Storage
Transforming the U.S. Market with a New Application of Ternary-Type Pumped Storage Hydropower Technology [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Greg Stark, greg.stark@nrel.gov
The U.S. electrical grid is seeing a huge increase in new renewable energy (RE) generation and, at the same time, a huge amount of thermal generation retirements. This dynamic is changing the traditional operation of the grid and is placing a premium on assets that can provide fast-ramping flexible capacity. Addressing this need, the study’s goals were to assess & quantify how innovative, fast-acting advanced PSH systems can economically solve these grid integration challenges during future high RE contribution scenarios. Project focused on ternary PSH (T-PSH) and quaternary PSH (Q-PSH), coupling them with sophisticated transmission monitoring/control equipment (i.e., dynamic transmission) as a proposed solution.
Technology Application
Pumped Storage
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Markets
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Understanding Operational Flexibility in the Federal Columbia River Power System
Lead Companies
University of Washington
Lead Researcher (s)
- Karen Studarus
Operational flexibility describes a power system’s ability to respond with controllable real power resources to rapid changes in power balance error. For balancing areas with high penetrations of stochastic generation, these changes can be large enough to cause operating problems. We create the tools to quantify and intuitively explore operational flexibility in any power system and apply those tools to analyze the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS). We chose the FCRPS because it is a large system with complicated constraints, and because conflicting demands on operational flexibility have become a regional public issue. We inventory system obligations, map all obligations and forecasts to constraints in the form of power (MW) vs. time, create data structures and an algebra for unifying these time series, and assemble an original metric of operational flexibility. The metric quantifies a common but vague concept of flexibility, intuitively characterizes a power system, and yields actionable intelligence that dovetails with existing deterministic indicators of system state. The resulting information-dense summary can improve schedule quality both as a visualization tool for human schedulers and as a versatile formulation for dispatch algorithms.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Renewable Integration
Status
complete
Completion Date
2014
- Conventional Hydro
Using Remote Sensing and Ground Measurements to Improve Evaporation Estimation and Reservoir Management
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Dagmar Llewellyn
Evaporative losses from reservoirs are not well understood due to climatic conditions, size and shape of the reservoir, and reservoir operations. However, these losses have the potential to be managed through science based decision making tools. The current method(s) used to estimate and account for evaporative losses rely upon technology from a century ago (i.e. Class A Evaporation Pan) and area-capacity tables for individual reservoirs. Technological advances using remote sensing (e.g. LandSat-8) and highly sensitive instrumentation (i.e. 3-D Sonic Anemometer with hygrometer, infrared sensor, etc.) have shown the potential to be used in estimating evaporation losses on spatial and temporal scale with more accuracy. Preliminary studies (BoR Technical Report RO5AC40438 2013) have been conducted at Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs by US Bureau of Reclamation and New Mexico State University.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2021
- Pumped Storage
Valuation Framework and Techno-Economic Studies for Pumped Storage Hydropower
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Mark Weimer
This project aims to advance the state of the art in assessing the value of PSH plants and their contributions to the power system. The specific goal is to develop a detailed, step-by-step valuation guidebook that PSH developers, plant owners or operators, and other stakeholders can use to assess the value of existing or potential new PSH projects.
Technology Application
Pumped Storage
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Renewable Integration
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Pumped Storage
Valuation Guidance and Techno-Economic Studies for Pumped Storage Hydropower [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
ANL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Vladimir Koritarov, koritarov@anl.gov
The objective of this project is to advance state of the art in the assessment of value of PSH plants and their role in the power system. The goal is to develop a detailed step-by-step valuation guidance and apply it to two competitively selected PSH sites to test the valuation methodology and assist the developers in understanding the value streams available from their projects. The project outcomes are: • Develop a comprehensive, repeatable, and transparent valuation guidance that will allow for consistent valuation assessments and comparisons of potential new PSH projects or project design alternatives • Test the PSH valuation guidance and its underlying methodology by applying it to two selected PSH projects • Transfer and disseminate the PSH valuation guidance to the hydropower industry, PSH developers, and other stakeholders Technology Application
Pumped Storage
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Markets
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Pumped Storage
Value and Role of Pumped Storage Hydro under High Variable Renewables [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
Lead Researcher (s)
While advanced PSH technologies like variable speed units have existed for some time, none have been installed in the US. As such, market and operations models do not capture the capabilities of these technologies. The overall goal of this project is to overcome a range of market barriers for PSH by helping utility companies understand benefits of PSH that are not well understood or quantified, by demonstrating the capabilities of new PSH technologies such as variable speed PSH, and by helping developers improve PSH revenues with development of a new scheduling optimization tool. Technology Application
Pumped Storage
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Future Grid
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
Don’t see your waterpower research?
Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org