Hydropower Strategies
Actions to support reliable hydropower deliveries, optimize hydropower generation, support operations under variable hydrologic conditions, and improve cost-competitiveness
As the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, Reclamation supplies 40 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year on average. This hydropower is used to support water deliveries from Reclamation facilities and is marketed to power customers, providing revenues for project repayment.
Hydropower production faces challenges from longer, more severe droughts and floods as well as changes to the timing of runoff. In some Western river basins, including the Colorado River and Upper Rio Grande Basins, lower flows and reservoir levels as well as higher water demands associated with climate change are anticipated to decrease hydropower production.
Improving generation capability, flexibility, and reliability to ensure that each drop of water creates as much power as possible is part of Reclamation’s overall strategy to respond to the impacts of climate change. Reclamation uses advanced decision support tools to maximize the amount of power produced with available water supplies and new technologies to better maintain hydropower plants and decrease outages.
Optimizing Hydropower Generation
Reclamation’s hydropower decision support tool, HydrOS, uses innovative algorithms to maximize powerplant output, given water input. Thus, Reclamation powerplants need less water to meet power output requirements, conserving water. Reclamation’s Technical Service Center, in coordination with the USACE, developed HydrOS, which is configurable to all Reclamation hydropower plants.
Cavitation damage to the runner blade of Judge Francis Carr Unit 2 in 2013 near Shasta, California (Reclamation/John Germann).
Maintaining Hydropower System Infrastructure
Hydropower turbines can be damaged when required to operate during flood and drought conditions.
Machine Condition Monitoring (MCM) systems monitor equipment in real time, preventing wear and decreasing maintenance needs and costs by reducing the destructive operation of machinery during less than ideal conditions. Across Reclamation, 35 units now use this technology, and 39 more installations are planned. An MCM system analysis performed in 2019 found that investing almost $1 million resulted in $12 million in benefits—a twelve-fold return on investment.
At the Judge Francis Carr Powerplant near Shasta, California, MCM is used to monitor for problems when adverse water flow conditions harm the turbine blades. By using the data this system provided, operators at Judge Francis Carr Powerplant have been able to decrease cavitation and delay generator outages—increasing the service life of the powerplant. The MCM system’s flexibility and expandability will allow it to be adapted to meet future monitoring needs as conditions change.
Hydropower provides an important source of renewable, carbon-neutral energy. Water replenished by snowmelt and rainfall flows through a turbine that generates power and then continues downstream where it remains available to water users. Hydropower is uniquely suited to provide both firm (consistently available) power and dispatchable (on-demand) grid support services to transmit electricity in a safe, reliable manner.
Water Reliability in the West -
2021 SECURE Water Act Report