A Metric Framework for Evaluating the Resilience Contribution of Hydropower to the Grid

Abstract

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.

Resilience in an Evolving Electrical Grid

“…Optimized operation also lead to quicker response to cascading failures and rapid recovery of performance after such disturbance occurred. Multiple system assets can provide a variety of qualities that may contribute towards overall system resilience, e.g., Reference [48] discusses hydropower assets and their contribution towards resilience at an asset and system level.…”

An Operational Resilience Metric to Evaluate Inertia and Inverter-based Generation on the Grid

“…To this end, resilience metrics have been defined in [11] based on the aggregation of assets adaptive capacity in terms of real and reactive power to give an operational perspective in which operators can use to determine the size and duration of future disturbances the system can withstand. The metrics were further developed for hydropower assets in [12] and solar with forecast uncertainty in [13]. However, to date these metrics have not consider the resist phase of the DIRE curve.…”

Run-Of-River Small Hydropower Plants as Hydro-Resilience Assets against Climate Change

“…The European Environment Agency reports that precipitation variability could create uncertainty when investing in hydropower, and, particularly, the increased silting of sediment into reser-voirs caused by increased erosion and sediment displacement as a consequence of climate change can radically reduce the lifespan of the project [77]. ROR SHPPs, on the other hand, are more so considered as hydro-resilience facilities with minimum dependence of hydraulic head variations [78], as well as installations that could produce energy even in low flows. As friendlier projects with fewer impacts on the environment, e.g., non-affection of the physico-chemical values of the water quality indicators [79], ROR SHPPs have been gaining interest from policymakers and investors during the last few decades [35], with sustainability indicators for ROR hydroplants to be presented in the literature [80].…”