Fish screens at hydroelectric dams help to protect rearing and migrating fish by preventing them from passing through the turbines and directing them towards the bypass channels by means of a sweeping flow parallel to the screen. However, fish screens may actually be harmful to fish if the fish become impinged on the surface of the screen or become disoriented due to poor flow conditions near the screen. Recent modifications to the vertical barrier screens (VBS) in the gate wells at the Bonneville Dam second powerhouse (B2) were intended to increase the guidance of juvenile salmonids into the juvenile bypass system but have resulted in higher mortality and descaling rates of hatchery subyearling Chinook salmon during the 2008 juvenile salmonid passage season. To investigate the potential cause of the high mortality and descaling rates, an in situ water velocity measurement study was conducted using acoustic Doppler velocimeters in the gate well slots at turbine units 12A and 14A of B2. From the measurements collected, the average approach velocity, sweep velocity, and the root mean square value of the velocity fluctuations were calculated. The approach velocities measured across the face of the VBS were variable and typically less than 0.3 m/s, but fewer than 50% were less than or equal to 0.12 m/s. There was also large variance in sweep velocities across the face of the VBS with most measurements recorded at less than 1.5 m/s. Results of this study revealed that the approach velocities in the gate wells exceeded criteria intended to improve fish passage conditions that were recommended by National Marine Fisheries Service and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. The turbulence measured in the gate well may also result in suboptimal fish passage conditions but no established guidelines to contrast those results have been published. Full article

The global energy shortage has revived the interest in hydroelectric power, but extreme geological condition always pose challenges to the construction of hydroelectric power stations with large underground caverns. To solve the problem of safe design of large underground caverns, a Chinese-style intelligent stability design, representing recent developments in Chinese techniques for the construction of underground hydropower systems is presented. The basic aim of this method is to help designers improve the stability and design efficiency of large underground hydropower cavern groups. Its flowchart consists of two parts, one is initial design with an ordinal structure, and the other is dynamic design with a closed loop structure. In each part of the flowchart, analysis techniques, analysis content and design parameters for caverns’ stability are defined, respectively. Thus, the method provides designers with a bridge from the basic information of objective engineering to reasonable design parameters for managing the stability of hydraulic cavern groups. Application to two large underground caverns shows that it is a scientific and economical method for safely constructing underground hydraulic caverns. Full article

Climate change has a large impact on water resources and thus on hydropower. Hydroelectric power generation is closely linked to the regional hydrological situation of a watershed and reacts sensitively to changes in water quantity and seasonality. The development of hydroelectric power generation in the Upper Danube basin was modelled for two future decades, namely 2021–2030 and 2051–2060, using a special hydropower module coupled with the physically-based hydrological model PROMET. To cover a possible range of uncertainties, 16 climate scenarios were taken as meteorological drivers which were defined from different ensemble outputs of a stochastic climate generator, based on the IPCC-SRES-A1B emission scenario and four regional climate trends. Depending on the trends, the results show a slight to severe decline in hydroelectric power generation. Whilst the mean summer values indicate a decrease, the mean winter values display an increase. To show past and future regional differences within the Upper Danube basin, three hydropower plants at individual locations were selected. Inter-annual differences originate predominately from unequal contributions of the runoff compartments rain, snow- and ice-melt. Full article

Optimal utilization of available water resources has become more urgent due to the rapid growth of the economy and population. The joint operation of the Three Gorges cascade and Qingjiang cascade reservoirs in China was studied in this paper. Choosing maximization of hydropower generation and hydropower revenue as objective functions respectively, optimal models were established for individual and joint operation of the cascade reservoirs. The models were solved by the progressive optimality algorithm. The storage and electric compensation benefits among cascade reservoirs were analyzed. The daily inflow data of consecutive hydrological years of 1982–1987 were selected for a case study. Compared with the design operation rule, the joint operation of the multi-reservoir system can generate 5.992 billion kWh of extra power or an increase of 5.70% by the objective function of maximum hydropower generation. Through reservoir storage compensation, the spilled water of the Three Gorges and Qingjiang cascade reservoirs was decreased by 78.741 and 5.384 billion m³, respectively. Full article

This paper reviews and compares software tools for the planning and design of small hydropower (SHP) plants. The main emphasis is on small scale hydropower resource assessment computer tools and methodologies for the development of SHP plants corresponding to a preliminary or prefeasibility study level. The paper presents a brief evaluation of the historic software tools and the current tools used in the small hydro industry. The reviewed tools vary from simple initial estimates to quite sophisticated software. The integration of assessment tools into Geographic Information System (GIS) environments has led to a leap forward in the strengthening of the evaluation of the power potential of water streams in the case of the spatial variability of different factors affecting stream power. A number of countries (e.g., Canada, Italy, Norway, Scotland and the US) have re-assessed their hydropower capacities based on spatial information of their water stream catchments, developing tools for automated hydro-site identification and deploying GIS-based tools, so-called Atlases, of small-scale hydropower resources on the Internet. However, a reliable assessment of real SHP site feasibility implies some “on the ground” surveying, but this traditional assessment can be greatly facilitated using GIS techniques that involve the spatial variability of catchment characteristics. Full article