Operations & management |
Maintaining business as usual
Environmental considerations, monitoring snowpack and O&M contracts form the basis of this report looking at recent activities across the US industry
Below: Aerial view of severe drought conditions at Folsom Lake in California, US. The complex uncertainty of climate change is putting operation of the state’s reservoirs under closer scrutiny
CALIFORNIA’S HUNDREDS OF RESERVOIRS play an important role in maintaining “the economic and social vitality” of the state’s cities and farms due to the essential power generation, water supplies and flood control functions they perform, according to a recent report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) in the US. However, PPIC also claims that current approaches to reservoir management across the state fail to protect ecosystem health and can lead to or worsen conflicts surrounding water supplies. As the climate warms and droughts become more intense, a new approach to managing water for environmental purposes in California’s large reservoirs is being called for. The report called Storing Water for the Environment by Null et al claims that too often the environment is treated “as a constraint on reservoir operations, rather than as a management objective” which can promote a “manage-to-the edge” approach, increasing risk to the environment should forecasting or operational errors occur. While the authors claim that construction and operation of dams have played a major role in the decline of California’s rivers, estuaries and wetlands, a paradox now exists where such dams have become essential for managing these ecosystems, and will only become more important with climate change and increasing burdens on existing water supplies. However, the authors believe that such vital storage can be managed differently to support and revive health of the rivers. PPIC says that its report identifies ways to improve
freshwater ecosystem management in California and lists alternative approaches, including: The creation of ecosystem water budgets. Assignment of storage space for environmental management.
Flexible, integrated management of environmental flow releases and other habitat improvements. With the use of a simplified reservoir water balance and temperature model, the authors illustrate how setting aside a portion of reservoir inflow along with storage space can protect downstream ecosystems more efficiently than environmental water without storage. They also propose governance structures that could implement this novel approach, ways to create the water and storage assets of an ecosystem water budget, and ways to fund these programmes. Suggestions are also given about how this could be incorporated into five ongoing regulatory and planning efforts involving reservoirs in the Central Valley of California. As climate change increases vulnerabilities and uncertainty for the environment and other water users, PPIC says the approaches outlined in its report are more suited to managing uncertainty and will do a better job of meeting the complex challenges of today.
Contract awards Global power and energy service provider, the
PIC Group, has been awarded the operation and maintenance agreement for the Patriot Hydro Portfolio by owner LS Power. Under the terms of the O&M Agreement, PIC Group will have transitional as well as operational services responsibility to include full care, custody, and control overseeing day to day operations and maintenance services of the Patriot Hydro Portfolio until 2025. The Patriot Hydro Portfolio is comprised of a fleet of 42 hydroelectric power assets across 11 states. “PIC Group’s proven track record in successfully managing complex programmes and larger portfolios of assets uniquely positions them to support the transition, operate and maintain the Patriot Hydroelectric fleet. We look forward to working with PIC Group with their professional, customer centric approach to operations and maintenance.” said Anthony Hammond, Senior Vice President, Head of Asset Management at LS Power. The US Department of Energy, through its Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are set to work together to evaluate and demonstrate different approaches for operating hydropower plants to meet the electricity grid’s changing needs. Both parties have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see WPTO and its national laboratory partners focus on quantifying the value hydropower and pumped storage facilities provide to the electricity grid, and applying advanced modelling to predict the effects of climate change on TVA’s hydropower systems. They will also work to
18 | May 2023 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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