| Climate change
a planning cycle will help SKL get greater value out of the water on a yearly basis.
Critical data
US-based company SensorLogic is also helping to optimise hydropower production in Norway and bring critical water availability data across the Nordic region. Doug Roberts, Founder of SensorLogic, claims that
climate change has rendered existing technologies and networks unreliable when tracking and analysing water availability. “We have invested significant time and capital to develop SNOdar and the cloud computing platform needed to combine public data, our sensor data, and proprietary algorithms to offer water availability analytics to the US$7billion private climate data industry,” he said. In September 2022, Where2O, a Norwegian IoT company and part of the Telenor group, announced it is to deploy SNOdar sensors from US-based SensorLogic Inc to provide critical water availability data to allow hydropower plants to optimise power production. SNOdar is a snow-depth sensor which can accurately
measure snow depth in real-time. They are currently deployed across US and European environmental agencies, hydropwer plants and ski resorts. “We are excited about being able to offer products
from SensorLogic to our customers,” said Eivind Trondsen, CEO of Where2O AS. “Knowing the amount of snow accumulating in the watersheds above hydropower plants is one of the greatest challenges to hydrologists in the power industry.”
Hydro losses In its 2021-22 annual report, Manitoba Hydro says that
last year’s drought led to losses of C$248 million for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2022. “Obviously, the impact of last year’s drought is significant,” said Jay Grewal, President and CEO of Manitoba Hydro. “The drought was one of the worst on record. It not only weakened our ability to generate and sell surplus energy on spot markets in the US and Canada, but we also had to import energy to serve our customers. “The financial results of record high water flows this year show how much the corporation’s net income is subject to water flow conditions as well as weather, interest rates and export prices,” Grewal added. “All of these factors can be unpredictable and out of our control.”
High water levels on Lake Winnipeg were due to this year’s unprecedented spring flows into the lake across southern Manitoba, Northwest Ontario, and the northern US states, representing the highest volumes of water since records began in 1913. Last year, a large part of the same region was in drought. At the end of May 2022 all the rivers flowing into
Lake Winnipeg contributed to a peak inflow of over 450,000cfs, primarily from the Winnipeg and Red rivers, both in flood stage. These exceptional inflows caused the level of Lake Winnipeg to rise more quickly than it has in recorded history – a full 5.5ft in the six months between January and mid-July. “The change from the drought last year to high water conditions this year is extraordinary,” Grewal said. “Any time we have above-average water flows, we run as much water as we can through our turbines and sell
www.waterpowermagazine.com | November 2022 | 45
that excess energy on the opportunity market. That helps keep rates for our customers here in Manitoba lower than they would be otherwise, while providing needed revenue to reinvest in our existing electric system to ensure reliability into the future.” Grewal said the unpredictability of export market prices and the impact of precipitation and water flow on Manitoba Hydro’s revenues highlight the need for moderate, steady, and predictable rate increases. For example, in a first quarter forecast last year – a drought year – predicted net income was approximately C$120 million but that turned into a net loss, with a variance of almost C$370 million, as water conditions did not improve.
Facing drought Even in the face of drought, Gia Schneider, CEO and
Co-Founder of Natel Energy, believes that hydropower is still key to the energy transition. Writing for the National Hydropower Association in the US, Schneider said that although the “predominant media narrative has been sowing seeds of doubt about hydropower’s reliability as the western US states continue to face historic drought”, data shared by the US Energy Information Administration “tells a different story.” Over the course of a 12-day heat wave during
September 2022, described as the hottest and f
Above: Slave Falls generating station passing high water on the Winnipeg River in Canada. High water levels were experienced due to this year’s unprecedented spring flows. Last year, a large part of the same region was in drought Photo courtesy of Manitoba Hydro
Below: Glen Canyon hydropower dam in the US could be at risk of breaching critical reservoir thresholds within the next few years
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