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Hydropower’s Contribution to Grid Resiliency and Reliability
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Abhishek Somani
This project will develop frameworks, evaluation methodologies and tools to identify hydropower’s contribution to grid reliability and resilience, especially in the seconds to hours’ time frame. These methods will be demonstrated in this project through various use cases and will be provided to industry as guidance for understanding and evaluating hydropower’s role in reliability and resilience of the evolving electric grid. The outcomes of this work will shed light on the critical role that hydropower will play in the future grid and improve understanding of hydropower’s role in providing different services to support grid resiliency.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Future Grid
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
HydroWIRES Collaborative
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Alison Colotelo
The HydroWIRES (Water Innovation for a Resilient Electricity System) portfolio is organized into four interrelated research areas: 1) Value under Evolving System Conditions, 2) Capabilities and Constraints, 3) Operations and Planning, and 4) Technology Innovation. The mission of HydroWIRES (https://energy.gov/hydrowires) is to understand, enable, and improve hydropower’s contributions to reliability, resilience, and integration in a rapidly evolving electricity system. The initiative includes five national laboratories, PNNL brings expertise in valuation, market analysis, and grid integration and environmental performance of hydropower. Specifically, how hydropower capabilities contribute to the future grid and the capabilities and constraints of hydropower operations.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Renewable Integration
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Identification of spatial and topographical metrics for micro hydropower applications in irrigation infrastructure
Lead Companies
Colorado State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Brian Campbell
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.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
complete
Completion Date
2012
- Conventional Hydro
Identifying Hydropower Operational Flexibilities in Presence of Streamflow and Net Load Uncertainty [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
University of California, Irvine
Lead Researcher (s)
- Soroosh Sorooshian, Soroosh@uci.edu
Hydropower plants have been traditionally designed and used for base-load bulk energy production, but technological developments and changes to grid needs are making flexible operation more prevalent. Still, hydropower’s flexibility capabilities and constraints are not well understood. The goal of this project is to develop an accurate model representation of hydropower operations that allows for a detailed specification of various constraints and captures the underlying uncertainty from both inflows and net load. Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Future Grid
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Identifying Sources of Uncertainy in Flood Frequency Analysis
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Amanda Stone
We postulate that true FFA uncertainty may be larger than currently appreciated and that different components of the modeling chain such as model choice, parameter values or initial conditions impact FFAs by different amounts. We propose to explore key components of the modeling chain: 1) expanding from one model to a multi-model ensemble, 2) varying model parameters, and 3) varying initial conditions for each model structure. Furthermore, uncertainty and sensitivity characteristics likely vary across hydroclimatic regime. To address this hypothesis, we will use continuous ensemble simulations across model structures with parameter perturbations to drive a stochastic event simulation framework to reveal true FFA uncertainty and understand sensitivities across several case-study basins spanning the hydroloclimatology of the 17 western states.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Improving distributed hydrologic models using multiscale thermal infrared, near infrared, and visible imagery from sUAS and satellite-based sensors
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Lindsay Bearup
Can the use of sUAS combined with satellite data effectively improve calibration of distributed hydrologic models? Previous work has focused on developing techniques to control variables such as evapotranspiration using satellite remote sensing. The critical component is the equilibrium surface temperature which is normally calibrated using thermal remote sensing data from MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) or AATSR (Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer) which have a 1 km ground sample distance. This study seeks to improve thermal calibration techniques using much finer-resolution thermal measurements derived from a sUAS. The use of a sUAS will allow for the collection of high resolution imagery (< 1 cm – 1 m or more depending upon research goals) of landscape components, repeatedly and during desired time frames. Thermal data from a sUAS will provide much greater spatial and temporal resolution than satellite-based measurements, and will be obtained at a relatively low cost. This study seeks to determine the added benefit of improved spatial and temporal resolution of observations, evaluated through the existing model calibration framework of a sub-daily, sub-kilometer hydrologic model with complex terrain and vegetation, typical of many mountain headwaters systems experiencing change in the West.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2020
- Conventional Hydro
Improving Hydropower Benefits by Linking Environmental Decisions and Power System Trade-offs Through Flow Release Decisions [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
ORNL, PNNL, ANL, INL, NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Brenda Pracheil, pracheilbm@ornl.gov
Hydropower has a new and potentially important role in enhancing resilience of the electric system due to its ability to generate power without inputs from the grid. It is imminently important to understand if hydropower can have the necessary operational flexibility to provide these services given environmental flow requirements placed on the fleet. Environmental flow requirements included in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hydropower licenses are an important component to preserving and, in some cases, restoring ecological function and services provided by riverine ecosystems. While environmental flow requirements in a FERC license may improve outcomes such as water quality, fish habitat, or recreation, they may limit the operational flexibility of hydropower plants, narrowing their ability to respond to the grid. Defining linkages between flow requirements and specific environmental outcomes is essential to not only producing favorable environmental outcomes, but also to enabling greater operational flexibility within a given hydropower facility. This project will provide pathways for this co-optimization in hydropower systems by quantitatively linking power system and environmental outcomes through the common hub of flow decisions. It is anticipated that the co-optimization framework created in this project will provide a guide for designing environmental flow requirements that create value propositions for a diversity of stakeholders in FERC licensing proceedings. Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Optimization
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Improving Hydropower Representation in Power System Models [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
PNNL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Abhishek Somani, abhishek.somani@pnnl.gov
This project will provide a critical update to dynamic models of hydropower generators that were developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Researchers will also develop tools that provide an accurate, updated representation of water availability and hydropower generation constraints in different models. These accurate representations will allow will give system planners and operators a more realistic understanding of operating reserves, resulting in fewer unexpected outages. Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Transmission Services
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Improving the Representation of Hydrologic Processes and Reservoir Operations in Production Cost Models [HydroWIRES]
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Greg Stark, greg.stark@nrel.gov
Although there have been many advances in PCM techniques over the past decade, the representation of hydropower operations has remained relatively rudimentary. Hydropower operational constraints (e.g., equipment, water use priorities and rules, environmental constraints) are not easily characterized in unit commitment and economic dispatch models. Uncertainties involved with hydropower planning also do not align well with grid operation methodologies. These misalignments make it difficult for grid operations models to comprehensively value and make the best use of the flexibility available with hydropower generation. To address these challenges, NREL will lead integration of intraday and day-ahead grid operations models with a river basin model, enabling a global optimization across both grid and reservoir operations. The lab will also use stochastic hydropower forecasts combined with progressive hedging to perform multi-stage, multi-time period optimization. This allows the combined grid and water model to value multiple timescales and uncertainties in a single optimization, enabling more accurate value of real-time flexibility to help balance supply and demand under different scenarios while enforcing precise, long-term water level constraints. In essence, the project will help to improve both grid and water system resilience while making better use of the water throughout the season.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Optimization
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Improving the robustness of southwestern US water supply forecasting
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Dagmar Llewellyn
This research will address the overarching question of whether observed past climate trends have induced sufficient non-stationarity in climate and hydrologic systems in the western US to alter their predictability, which has consequences for water management. Key question include the following: When and where in the western US are hydroclimate trends and/or decadal variability leading to systematic biases in statistical and model-based waters supply forecasts? What practical adjustments can be made to current forecasting approaches to make seasonal water supply forecasts robust in the face of such phenomena? In particular, can hydrologic sensitivities to temperature be accounted for by leveraging operational temperature forecasts as streamflow predictors or weighting factors in conventional seasonal forecasting procedures? What are the marginal benefits of improvements in seasonal streamflow predictions for water management in the Upper Rio Grande River basin?
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Hydraulic Forecasting
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2021
Don’t see your waterpower research?
Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org