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Monthly hydropower generation data for Western Canada to support Western-US interconnect power system studies

Hydroelectric power generation in Western Canada significantly contributes to power grid operations of the North American Western Interconnection through substantial generation, some of which is exported to the United States (U.S.). However, the lack of publicly available hydropower generation datasets poses challenges for future market projections and resource adequacy evaluations. We present a simulation-based monthly power system model-ready hydropower generation dataset for 110 facilities in British Columbia and Alberta from 1981 to 2019. These monthly hydropower generation estimates are developed from integrated hydrologic model simulations of runoff and reservoir-operated streamflow, followed by scaling that considers diversion inflow constraints based on hydropower water license information. To address the lack of comparable hydropower generation records, we conduct step-by-step evaluations for simulated runoff, regulated streamflow, and hydropower generation using available observations or estimates. The presented hydropower dataset aims to enhance the representation of hydropower resources in Western Canada, supporting power grid system studies for the Western Interconnection of the U.S. and Canada.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Non-Powered Dam Retrofit Exemplary Design for Hydropower Applications

Non-powered dams (NPDs) represent complex systems, situated at the intersection of natural stream environments and the built environment. The presence and operations of NPDs affect stream constituents (e.g., fish, recreational craft, sediment, water) and serve one or more engineered purposes (e.g., recreation, flood control, water supply, irrigation, tailings and debris control, navigation). By definition, NPDs do not provide hydropower generation. However, every NPD contains some untapped hydropower resource potential, represented by the pre-existing hydraulic head created by the dam and presence of flowing water. Adding power generation to an NPD requires retrofitting the NPD, which could involve the addition of any new component or function beyond that currently installed. Because this research is funded by the US Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office, adding hydropower to NPDs is among the primary objectives for research investment. However, NPD retrofitting extends beyond the purview of hydropower additions. This report provides background information regarding NPD development in the United States, including an overview of the US NPD population, development potential, and recent development. It also summarizes challenges and opportunities facing NPD retrofit development, highlights the importance of maintaining or improving stream and dam functionality, notes key NPD characteristics, describes NPD retrofit methods, and identifies innovation areas for spurring future NPD retrofit development. Section 4 describes retrofit exemplary design principles and concepts that could apply to a wide range of NPD projects. These principles and concepts inform an NPD Retrofit Exemplary Design Specification (REDS), as included in Appendix A. The NPD REDS is heavily influenced by prior work under the standard modular hydropower technology acceleration research initiative, especially the work documented in the Exemplary Design Envelope Specification for Standard Modular Hydropower Technology (Witt et al., 2017). Whereas this prior work focuses on a particular technology class that applies most intentionally for new stream-reach development (i.e., greenfield sites), the NPD REDS contained herein applies more broadly to the NPD resource class and is technology-agnostic (i.e., the specific technologies intended to be described are not explicitly prescribed). This report serves as a part of early-phase research on NPD retrofit development, aimed toward spurring additional, follow-on efforts to specifically address development challenges, capitalize on development opportunities, and inspire innovation. As documented in the landmark “Hydropower Vision” report (DOE 2016), “transformative technical innovations able to meet the co-objectives of environmental sustainability and low-carbon energy will be critical to enabling additional hydropower growth.” This report serves as an important step in steering transformation of US non-powered dam infrastructure.

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Hydropower: Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment

The report “America’s Strategy to Secure the Supply Chain for a Robust Clean Energy Transition” lays out the challenges and opportunities faced by the United States in the energy supply chain as well as the federal government plans to address these challenges and opportunities. It is accompanied by several issue-specific deep dive assessments, including this one, in response to Executive Order 14017 “America’s Supply Chains,” which directs the Secretary of Energy to submit a report on supply chains for the energy sector industrial base. The Executive Order is helping the federal government to build more secure and diverse U.S. supply chains, including energy supply chains. Hydropower is a vital component of the U.S. Energy Sector Industrial Base. The United States has mature conventional hydropower and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) fleets with corresponding mature supply chains. Given the slow pace of new construction over the past few decades, the U.S. hydropower industry primarily supports the existing domestic fleets—the U.S. conventional hydropower fleet (80.3 GW) is the 4 th largest in the world and the U.S. PSH fleet (21.8 GW) is the third largest in the world. Additionally, U.S. hydropower manufacturing facilities export part of their output. This report examines the hydropower supply chain to identify potential bottlenecks, challenges, and opportunities, particularly if the U.S. demand for hydropower components grows significantly to meet decarbonization targets.

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Advanced Manufacturing and Materials for Hydropower: Challenges and Opportunities

Hydropower is a well-established industry that has been largely contributing to the global generation of clean and renewable energy for more than a century. In the United States in 2021, it accounted for 30% of all renewable energy generation and 6.1% of the total energy portfolio. Hydropower technology and designs have been optimized throughout the years, but manufacturing of hydropower components still relies heavily on traditional methods and materials. Changes in global energy production systems and international supply chain issues are inspiring the manufacturing sector to reconsider their processes. Similarly, the hydropower industry is facing manufacturing challenges stemming from well-known maintenance issues, environmental impact mitigations, and changes in operations. These challenges, along with continued innovation in new hydropower and pumped storage development and modernization of the fleet, present an opportunity for advanced manufacturing and materials (AMM) to provide immense value to the hydropower industry. In support of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), this report aims to characterize the current and emerging manufacturing-related challenges in US hydropower and to identify the high-impact opportunities in AMM that could address these challenges. The results highlighted in this report were collected through literature review, individual stakeholder interviews, and an in-person workshop organized at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility that brought together hydropower industry stakeholders, advanced manufacturing R&D, and the government.

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A census of fish passage facilities at US hydropower developments across the conterminous United States

Hydropower provides reliable and secure electricity and contributes significantly to the flexibility and stability of the US electricity grid. Hydropower dams generally are aquatic barriers and hazards to migratory fish in rivers. Fish passage facilities mitigate risks from hydropower to migratory fish, but information on these facilities is incomplete for the conterminous United States (CONUS). Here, we present the first CONUS-scale dataset of fish passage facilities at US hydropower developments in over 30 years. The existence of fish passage facilities (presence or absence) was specified for 1909 hydropower features, 390 of which had at least one facility. Most features had a single passage facility that provided passage in only one direction, with downstream being more common than upstream passage. Bypasses and ladders accounted for 60 % of the fish passage facility types. While we documented 659 fish passage facilities across CONUS, facilities were most common in the New England, Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions. In general, fish passage facilities were more common at features that were closer to the ocean, at lower elevations, and at shorter dams, but not related to installed electrical generation capacity. Hydrologic sub-basins containing salmonids also contained the largest number of hydropower features, but the proportion of features with passage was generally higher in sub-basins containing multiple migratory taxa. This census provides valuable information on existing fish passage mitigation and is a benchmark to gauge progress toward a modernized hydropower fleet that provides affordable, reliable energy while protecting fishery resources and river ecosystems.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

ORNL National Hydropower Fish Passage Database

Fish passage facilities are used to mitigate impacts of hydropower dams to migratory fish in rivers, but information on the location, types, and characteristics of this infrastructure is incomplete at a national scale. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) partnered with fish passage engineers and hydropower experts from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA NMFS), and the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) to create the first national scale database of fish passage infrastructure at US hydropower developments. This database consists of the ORNL_Fish_Passage_Dataset.zip file with 13 individual .csv files that contain information on fish passage facility engineering characteristics, targeted fish species, operational schedule, and costs. which is of great value to a diverse range of stakeholders. This information was collected between December 2023 and July 2025 from project partners, other hydropower stakeholders, online datasets available for download, and a stakeholder questionnaire Information. This data resource addresses a large gap in knowledge of the deployment of fish passage technology and is freely available to members of the hydropower community, including federal and state regulators and resource agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry, and other user groups to support project planning and regulatory (re)licensing activities. This database supports the US Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office objective to develop decision support tools and data resources that improve environmental performance and ensure hydropower’s long-term value to the American public.

Matson, Paul [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)↗

A dataset of eco-evidence tools to inform early-stage environmental impact assessments of hydropower development

The datasets described herein provide the foundation for a decision support prototype (DSP) toolkit aimed at assisting stakeholders in determining evidence of which aspects of river ecosystems have been impacted by hydropower. The DSP toolkit and its application are presented and described in the article “Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development” [1]. Development of the DSP and the output for decision support centralize around 42 river function indicators describing the dimensionality of river ecosystems through six main categories: biota and biodiversity, water quality, hydrology, geomorphology, land cover, and river connectivity. Three main tools are represented in the DSP: A science-based questionnaire (SBQ), an environmental envelope model (EEM), and a river function linkage assessment tool (RFLAT). The SBQ is a structured survey-style questionnaire whose objective is to provide evidence of which indicators have been impacted by hydropower. Based on a global literature review, 140 questions were developed from general hypotheses regarding the impacts of dams on rivers. The EEM is a model to predict the likelihood of hydropower impacting indicators based on a several variables. The intended use of the EEM is for situations of new hydropower development where results of the SBQ are incomplete or highly uncertain. The EEM was developed through the compilation of a dataset containing attributes of dams, reservoirs, and geospatial information on environmental concerns, which was combined with data on ecological indicators documented at those sites through literature review. The model operates through 247 “envelopes” and weighting factors, representing the individual effect of each variable on each indicator, all available through spreadsheets. Finally, the RFLAT is a tool to examine causal relationships amongst indicators. Inter-indicator relationships were hypothesized based on literature review and summarized into node and edge datasets to represent the structure of a graphical network. Bayes theorem was used estimate conditional probabilities of inter-indicator relationships based on the output of the SBQ. Nodes and edges were imported into R programming environment to visualize ecological indicator networks. The datasets can be expanded upon and enriched with more detailed questions for the SBQ, building upon the EEM with to develop more sophisticated models, and identifying new relationships for the RFALT. Additionally, once the tools are applied to numerous hydropower developments, the output of the tools (e.g. evidence of impacted indicators) becomes a very useful dataset for meta-analyses of hydropower impacts.

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Hydropower potential derived from streamflow extremes for Alaska, USA

Alaska is an expansive region known for its abundant natural resources, including thousands of miles of streams and rivers. These rivers represent potential opportunities for future hydropower development that could provide reliable energy supply for local communities. There is limited long-term high temporal resolution streamflow data available for the region, making data-driven estimates of potential hydropower and its variability across the state challenging. This study provides a novel data-driven approach for hydropower capacity estimation across Alaska. We use supervised machine learning to develop a relationship between the daily and peak flow duration curves in order to augment the size of our dataset from 44 sites to 67 sites. We perform a stochastic hydropower estimation across the 67 sites and identify approximately 1000 MW of total potential hydropower capacity distributed across these sites. Our study provides the first step towards more comprehensive hydropower estimation for this critical region, highlighting the need for future work integrating high-resolution spatial data, community needs, and economic constraints in estimates of potential hydropower development in Alaska.

Hydropower↗

The HydroBio Dataset: a new data resource for evaluating existing and potential hydropower capacity and freshwater biodiversity in the conterminous United States

Hydropower is a critical source of affordable and reliable electricity and energy system stability services in the United States. Opportunities to expand US hydropower production include retrofitting existing non-powered dams to produce power, retrofitting existing hydropower dams to improve efficiency or increase capacity, or constructing new hydropower infrastructure on currently unregulated river reaches. We created the HydroBio Dataset, which summarizes existing and potential hydropower capacity and freshwater biodiversity at the sub-basin scale in the conterminous US to contextualize existing and potential grid contributions with the freshwater ecosystems in which dams are situated. We demonstrate a use-case of this dataset by rescaling and comparing potential non-powered dam nominal capacity to rarity-threat-weighted freshwater species richness for sub-basins where both types of data exist. On average, normalized freshwater biodiversity exceeded normalized potential non-powered dam nominal capacity in these sub-basins. Potential non-powered dam nominal capacity was concentrated in sub-basins in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio hydrologic regions while freshwater biodiversity was concentrated in the South Atlantic-Gulf, Ohio, and Tennessee hydrologic regions. Additionally, non-powered dams and existing hydropower dams are located in sub-basins with similar indices of freshwater biodiversity. The HydroBio Dataset adds an additional ecological dimension of context to our understanding of current and potential future US hydropower capabilities and is a valuable decision support tool for stakeholders tasked with balancing gains in services to the US power grid with the public and environmental benefits of freshwater ecosystems.

Biodiversity↗

Variability in modelled reservoir greenhouse gas emissions: comparison of select US hydropower reservoirs against global estimates

Abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from reservoirs have most often been evaluated on a global extent through areal scaling or linear-regression models. These models typically rely on a limited number of characteristics such as age, size, and average temperature to estimate per reservoir or areal flux. Such approaches may not be sufficient for describing conditions at all types of reservoirs. Emissions from hydropower reservoirs have received increasing attention as industry and policy makers seek to better understand the role of hydropower in sustainable energy solutions. In the United States (US), hydropower reservoirs span a wide range of climate regions and have diverse design and operational characteristics compared to those most heavily represented in model literature (i.e., large, tropical reservoirs). It is not clear whether estimates based on measurements and modeling of other subsets of reservoirs describe the diverse types of hydropower reservoirs in the US. We applied the Greenhouse Gas from Reservoirs (G‐res) emissions model to 28 hydropower reservoirs located in a variety of ecological, hydrological, and climate settings that represent the range of sizes and types of facilities within the US hydropower fleet. The dominant pathways for resulting GHG emissions estimates in the case-study reservoirs were diffusion of carbon dioxide, followed by methane ebullition. Among these case-study reservoirs, total post-impoundment areal flux of carbon ranges from 84 to 767 mgCm −2 d −1 , which is less variable than what has been reported through measurements at other US and global reservoirs. The net GHG reservoir footprint was less variable and towards the lower end of the range observed from modeling larger global reservoirs, with a range of 138 to 1,052 g CO 2 eq m −2 y −1 , while the global study reported a range of 115 to 145,472 g CO 2 eq m −2 y −1 . High variation in emissions normalized with respect to area and generation highlights the need to be cautious when using area or generation in predicting or communicating emissions footprints for reservoirs relative to those of other energy sources, especially given that many of the hydropower reservoirs in the US serve multiple purposes beyond power generation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Impact of hydropower availability on resource adequacy of the United States western interconnection

Hydropower is a key energy source in the western interconnection of the United States, comprising about 25% of the annual installed nameplate capacity in 2020. However, its generation is increasingly impacted by changing hydrological conditions, operational constraints, environmental factors, water availability, and aging dam infrastructure. Assessing hydropower availability and resource adequacy is valuable for shaping energy policies and infrastructure requirements. In this study we evaluate the sensitivity of resource adequacy in the Western Interconnection to the unavailability of hydropower plants, under a wide-ranging set of 16,384 hydropower loss scenarios derived from a combination of 14 major hydrologic regions. Although a complete loss of hydropower capacity in any region is unlikely, studying such scenarios helps in identifying hydrologic regions most critical for maintaining resource adequacy. So, we identify key hydrologic regions with disproportionately large adequacy impacts relative to their installed hydropower capacity and study compounding effects between regions using classification and regression trees. Even after controlling for total installed capacity, we find that hydropower resources in the Pacific Northwest contribute the most to interconnection-wide adequacy outcomes, with resources in Northern California and the Desert Southwest providing more moderate incremental contributions.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Adaptively Learned Modeling for a Digital Twin of Hydropower Turbines with Application to a Pilot Testing System

In the development of a digital twin (DT) for hydropower turbines, dynamic modeling of the system (e.g., penstock, turbine, speed control) is crucial, along with all the necessary data interface, virtualization, and dashboard designs. Since the DT must mimic the actual dynamics of the hydropower turbine accurately, adaptive learning is required to train these dynamic models online so that the models in the DT can effectively follow the representation of the actual hydropower turbine dynamics accurately and reliably. This study presents an adaptive learning method for obtaining the hydropower turbine models for DT development of hydropower systems using the recursive least squares algorithm. To simplify the formulation, the hydropower turbine under consideration was assumed to operate near a fixed operating point, where the system dynamics can be well represented by a set of linear differential equations with constant parameters. In this context, the well-known six-coefficient model for the Francis turbine was formulated as the starting point to obtain input and output models for the turbine. Then, an adaptive learning mechanism was developed to learn model parameters using real-time data from a hydropower turbine testing system. This led to semi-physical modeling, in which first principles and data-driven modeling are integrated to produce dynamic models for DT development. Applications to a pilot system at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) were made, and the models learned adaptively using the data collected from the university’s pilot system. Desired modeling and validation results were obtained.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

A robust statistical analysis of the role of hydropower on the system electricity price and price volatility

Abstract Hydroelectric power (hydropower) is unique in that it can function as both a conventional source of electricity and as backup storage (pumped hydroelectric storage and large reservoir storage) for providing energy in times of high demand on the grid (S. Rehman, L M Al-Hadhrami, and M M Alam), (2015 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews , 44 , 586–98). This study examines the impact of hydropower on system electricity price and price volatility in the region served by the New England Independent System Operator (ISONE) from 2014-2020 (ISONE, ISO New England Web Services API v1.1 .” https://webservices.iso-ne.com/docs/v1.1/ , 2021. Accessed: 2021-01-10). We perform a robust holistic analysis of the mean and quantile effects, as well as the marginal contributing effects of hydropower in the presence of solar and wind resources. First, the price data is adjusted for deterministic temporal trends, correcting for seasonal, weekend, and diurnal effects that may obscure actual representative trends in the data. Using multiple linear regression and quantile regression, we observe that hydropower contributes to a reduction in the system electricity price and price volatility. While hydropower has a weak impact on decreasing price and volatility at the mean, it has greater impact at extreme quantiles (>70th percentile). At these higher percentiles, we find that hydropower provides a stabilizing effect on price volatility in the presence of volatile resources such as wind. We conclude with a discussion of the observed relationship between hydropower and system electricity price and volatility.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

A metric framework for evaluating the resilience contribution of hydropower to the grid

This paper will describe a proposed framework for expressing the resilience of hydropower generation and provide initial case studies for three classes of hydropower, run-of-river hydropower, hydropower with reservoirs, and pumped storage hydropower. Hydropower has great flexibility to provide support during and after natural and man-made events that can disrupt critical infrastructure functionality. The concept of the framework provides for consideration of policy and rules, constraints of the water shed and other allocations of water, storage and plant capabilities to produce real and reactive power, and the strength of the delivery network. The paper details a resilience response metric that has inputs of state of storage and plant level constraints on real and reactive power production. Using the definition of resilience, based on maintaining a minimally normal operations, we provide a qualitative assessment of hydropower’s ability to address the various time scales comprising the “R”s of resilience.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Historical Hydropower Operations and Economic Value

This report on historical hydropower operations and economic value focuses primarily on addressing HydroWIRES Objective 1.3: Advance valuation of conventional and pumped-storage hydropower assets. It is informed by previous work performed by Argonne and other national laboratories on the modeling and analysis of value of pumped storage and conventional hydropower. The results from this report will feed into the new projects that are planned under the HydroWIRES initiative and that will examine hydropower’s value in providing grid reliability and resilience, as well as in improving the modeling and representation of hydropower in power system models. Other relevant DOE efforts include various WPTO-funded projects, such as the Beyond Levelized Cost of Energy Project and Integrated Hydropower and Storage Systems, that are currently addressing similar challenges associated with defining grid service values that arise from hydropower machine capabilities.

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Hydropower Geotechnical Foundations: Executive Summary on Current Practice and Innovation Opportunities for Low-Head Applications

The following content provides a companion executive summary of Hydropower Geotechnical Foundations: Current Practice and Innovation Opportunities for Low-Head Applications (DeNeale et al. 2020), a technical report developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Knight Piésold Consulting, with funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). This executive summary provides a brief synopsis of the broader information contained in the technical report. This study (and the associated technical report): (1) covers background information on hydropower; (2) describes various characteristics relevant to hydropower foundations for undeveloped US streams; (3) presents the current state of practice in foundation development; (4) provides a representative assessment of conventional hydropower foundation costs and timelines; (5) addresses key challenges facing conventional hydropower foundations; and (6) presents opportunity areas and examples for innovative hydropower foundation technologies while highlighting some advances in non-hydropower industries.

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A Comprehensive Framework for Valuation of Ecosystem Services in the Context of Hydropower

While models to value ecosystem services exist, they suffer from a lack of “portability” in the sense that a single modelling framework developed for one site cannot be imported and applied to another. Additionally, benefit estimations are often fragmented, incomplete, incomparable, and in heterogenous metrics, thus preventing aggregation to arrive at one comprehensive value. In the context of hydropower, the methods, as well as the metrics used to value the associated ecosystem services, vary between stakeholders (e.g., competing water users, agencies, etc.), detracting from the ability to assess the total value of a hydropower project, water management schemes, or comparing value between competing water users. Further, current methods to value water neglect non-market ecosystem services’ values by failing to account for externalities, resulting in misallocation of costs (e.g., obligatory stakeholder payments for water use) and misinterpretation of hydropower benefits. The benefit-cost ratios in hydropower development are often incomplete because non-market benefits are excluded (e.g., benefits, such as fish habitat resiliency and agricultural water reliability, derived from hydropower development). An approach to enable consistent, standardized hydropower benefit-cost analyses does not currently exist. This paper conceptualizes a methodology to standardize ecosystem services valuation in the context of hydropower projects through the integration of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s existing Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System framework and economic valuation techniques, and demonstrates the applicability of this methodology through a limited proof-of-concept application (the New Waddell Plant, a pumped hydroelectric energy storage facility in Phoenix, AZ). The beauty of our proposed framework lies in its ability to be imported and applied to any other pumped storage facility after accounting for site-specific features.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

An Assessment of Hydropower Potential at National Conduits

In support of the mission of the US Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office to promote domestic next-generation hydropower growth, this study provides a first-of-its-kind assessment of the hydropower development potential on existing water conduits nationwide. This study evaluates the potential for conduit hydropower development in the municipal, agricultural, and industrial sectors across the United States. The research team developed systematic methods to evaluate conduit hydropower capacity potential (MW) and energy generation potential (GWh/year) at four categories of conduits across the United States. They include the following: (1) Water supply pipelines for municipal and industrial uses, (2) Wastewater discharge conduits from municipal and industrial systems, (3) Agricultural water conduits including irrigation canals and ditches in the 17 western states that rely heavily on irrigation, and (4) Thermoelectric power plant cooling water discharge conduits. For each type of conduit, the team developed and implemented a method to estimate hydraulic head and annual water flows—and the hydropower potential—based on analyses of satellite imagery, topography, and existing data sets on water systems and power plants. These methods support a consistent, replicable estimate of conduit hydropower potential across 3 sectors and all 50 states, aggregated at the county and state levels. The assessment was conducted at the reconnaissance level, considering resources that could be available for development at the state and national levels using present-day assumptions about conduit hydropower technology.

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