Demand for hydropower is increasing, yet the water footprints (WFs) of reservoirs and hydropower, and their contributions to water scarcity, are poorly understood. Here, we calculate reservoir WFs (freshwater that evaporates from reservoirs) and hydropower WFs (the WF of hydroelectricity) in China based on data from 875 representative reservoirs (209 with power plants). In 2010, the reservoir W...

Standard operating policy and hedging policies are commonly used for reservoir operation for municipal or irrigation water supply. Application of these policies to hydropower reservoir operation is complex. In this paper, new standard operating policies and standard hedging policy are proposed for hydropower reservoir operation. The newly proposed policies were applied to the operation of Indir...

California’s hydropower system is composed of high and low elevation power plants. There are more than 150 high-elevation power plants, at elevations above 1,000 feet (300 m). Most have modest reservoir storage capacities, but supply roughly 74% of California’s in-state hydropower. The expected shift of runoff peak from spring to winter due to climate warming, resulting in snowpack reduction an...

Small hydropower (SHP) is a renewable, efficient and eco friendly technology. Out of all the essential civil components, the desilting tank is one of the most vital part of SHP schemes, which ejects the sediment and foreign particles carried by water through the conductor system and protects the hydro mechanical equipments. With the passage of time, the desilting device has undergone modificati...

The investment in small hydropower plants requires the analysis of hydrological, technical, operational, budgetary, economical and financial aspects. The analysis of each possible configuration demands the joint action of several technicians, consuming substantial time and money. During initial design of the project, simplified procedures are usually adopted which may compromise the quality of ...

Developing countries around the world are expanding hydropower to meet growing energy demand. In the Brazilian Amazon, >200 dams are planned over the next 30 years, and questions about the impacts of current and future hydropower in this globally important watershed remain unanswered. In this context, we applied a hydrologic indicator method to quantify how existing Amazon dams have altered the...

The growth of population, rising fossil fuel prices (limited and decreasing day by day), pollution problem due to use of fossil fuels and increasing electrical demand are important factors that encourage the use of green and renewable energy technologies. Among the different renewable energy technologies, hydro power generation (large and small scale) is the prime choice in terms of contributio...

This paper presents part of the work carried out within the framework of a research project entitled Application of variable speed and intelligent control technologies to hydropower generation. Specifically, it is focused on the activities performed in order to achieve one of the main objectives of the project: the design of a water level control system for a low-head run-of-river variable spee...

Water distribution networks face several problems related to leakages, where the pressure control strategy is a common practice for water loss management. Small-scale hydropower schemes, where pumps as turbines replace pressure reducing valves, can be considered an interesting technical solution, which ensures both economic convenience and system flexibility. Due to the water networks’ variable...