EVALUATING ECOSYSTEM AND WIND-FOLLOWING SERVICES FOR HYDRO-ELECTRIC DAMS
Open Access
- Author:
- Fernandez, Alisha Rachel
- Graduate Program:
- Energy and Mineral Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 25, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Seth Adam Blumsack, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Patrick M Reed, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Seth Adam Blumsack, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- energy policy
hydro-electric power
wind generation
ancillary services
ecosystem services
sensitivity analysis
drought - Abstract:
- Hydropower can provide relatively inexpensive, flexible fill-in power to compensate for intermittent renewable generation, with minimal environmental effects compared to competing generation sources. Water management policies for hydropower dams maintain multiple services beyond electric generation, such as flood control, recreation, ecosystem services, and municipal water supply. Managing these multiple services involves various, sometimes conflicting policy objectives. We perform a scenario analysis that models the profit-maximizing behavior of Dominion, a small-scale dam owner, when providing multiple services that include flow management for downstream ecosystem maintenance; utility profit-maximization in a day-ahead (DA) market; and a “wind-following service” similar to ancillary services. Our specific case study uses the Kerr Dam, located on the Roanoke River in North Carolina. Wind-following service that Kerr provides allows the wind turbine to behave as a controllable or dispatchable generator, providing energy into the day-ahead market much like a hydroelectric dam does. The analysis focuses on the potential conflicts and trade-offs that arise from the formulation of energy policy differences separately from river-management policy decisions. Our analysis suggests that reserves market prices would not need to increase to move Kerr Dam from the DA to the ancillary services market to offer wind-following services. Yet, reserve payments steadily decrease with increased hydrological variability. A sensitivity analysis of the wind-following capacity amount sold at current ancillary (reserves) services market prices suggests that wind-following may be profitable for Dominion at low capacity levels, yet wind-following with ecosystem services yields revenue loss that typically cannot be recovered with current reserves market payments. A significant policy tradeoff exists between ecosystem services and wind-following services. Water release patterns are inconsistent with the ecosystem-services goals when Dominion dedicates a significant portion of Kerr’s capacity to wind-following, particularly in drought years.