Hydropower Baseline Cost Modeling

O’Connor, Patrick; Zhang, Qin Fen; DeNeale, Scott; Chalise, Dol Raj; Centurion, Emma E.

doi:10.2172/1185882

Cited by 17 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Total CS1 project costs are at the high end of this range, revealing the benefit of economies of scale for larger projects. The percentage breakdown of CS1 costs is similar to PSH projects in the planning and engineering phase (O'Connor et al, 2015), indicating the cost distribution is on par with PSH in the regulatory pipeline (CS1 equipment costs include indirect costs). These comparisons are provided only as a point of reference, and are used with caution.…”

Section: Project Costsmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Evaluation of the feasibility and viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) in the United States

Witt¹,

Hadjerioua²,

Rocio³

et al. 2015

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Section: Project Costsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…A detrimental lack of data on small-scale (<5MW) pumped storage and hydro projects plagues many feasibility assessments (O'Connor et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2012). This fact is evident in the cost estimating technique used by HDR (2011) to evaluate the feasibility of PSH on the ORNL campus.…”

Section: Updating the Ornl M-psh Capital Cost Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the feasibility and viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) in the United States

Witt¹,

Hadjerioua²,

Rocio³

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Dam removal is often found to be the least expensive alternative compared with repairs or improvements ( 6 , 7 , 33 ). Available data suggest that removal costs are on average 50% less than fish passage installation and 82% less than new turbine installation ( 33 , 35 – 37 ). Combining dam removals with investments in alternative water supply and renewable energy sources could dramatically improve efficiency ( 38 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multiscale approach to balance trade-offs among dam infrastructure, river restoration, and cost

Roy

Uchida

Souza

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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SignificanceWe assess the trade-offs and synergies involved with coordinated dam removal at three spatial scales in New England. We find that increasing the scale of dam decisions improves trade-offs among ecosystem services, river safety, and cost, but the benefits of large-scale river restoration vary dramatically by location. Our model may help facilitate future dam decision negotiations by identifying appropriate scales, locations, and criteria that satisfy multilateral funding, policy, and stakeholder goals.

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“…It should be noted that generator replacement costs are >10 times the ICC c value (O'Connor et al 2015b). We examine the cumulative benefits and costs (monetary and generation) of the alternatives.…”

Section: Roanoke River Basin North Carolina and Virginiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Commonalities in stream connectivity restoration alternatives: an attempt to simplify barrier removal optimization

2019

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Movement within stream corridors is a basic life history requirement of many aquatic organisms. Barrier removal in streams has become a common practice in the United States aimed to restore organism dispersal and meet conservation objectives; however, there are social and economic costs to the removal of barriers. Accordingly, tools to prioritize barrier removal, particularly optimization techniques, can be used to evaluate cost‐benefit trade‐offs. Many of these techniques, however, require programming experience and are not available to natural resource managers. Furthermore, conservation objectives vary considerably depending on the life histories of organisms under consideration, and these opposing objectives, in conjunction with variant socioeconomic costs, will influence optimization solutions, specifically which barriers to remove. To promote the use of optimization tools, straightforward and open‐access platforms are needed to support use by managers, while also providing general approaches for holistic basin‐scale connectivity restoration. Herein, we use two case studies, White Oak Creek (small watershed) and the Roanoke River Basin (large basin), to explore the divergent outcomes stemming from different conservation objectives and socioeconomic costs used to prioritize barrier removal. We conducted optimization modeling using a widely accessible platform along with an open‐access solver plug‐in to support a wide variety of conservation objectives. We used simple approaches to find commonalities in barriers identified for removal among divergent conservation objectives and provide alternative (i.e., hybrid removal‐passage) strategies for approaching habitat restoration for diverse aquatic communities while increasing social benefits (i.e., hydropower energy). As expected, different conservation objectives aimed to support varied species life histories (e.g., diadromy, large‐river vs. small‐river potamodromy) have very different effects on optimization solutions. In both case studies, however, commonalities in solutions were identified through clustering groups of barriers into general connectivity restoration strategies. Furthermore, strategy types for a given barrier could be predicted with ≥72% accuracy using only four metrics. This suggests that optimization results can be simplified into general standards to support adoption of sustainable basin connectivity criteria strategies. Our framework provides a flexible and open‐access approach to conduct relatively complex optimization modeling for stream barrier prioritization, while examining potential for agreement among divergence conservation objectives.

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Hydropower Baseline Cost Modeling

Cited by 17 publications

References 7 publications

Evaluation of the feasibility and viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) in the United States

Evaluation of the feasibility and viability of modular pumped storage hydro (m-PSH) in the United States

A multiscale approach to balance trade-offs among dam infrastructure, river restoration, and cost

Commonalities in stream connectivity restoration alternatives: an attempt to simplify barrier removal optimization

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