IIE Lunchtime Seminar - Pierre Razurel (University of Edinburgh)

A stream-scale model to optimize the water allocation for Small Hydropower Plants and its integration to a catchment scale model

Abstract: Hydropower plays an important role in supplying worldwide energy demand where it contributes to approximately 16% of global electricity production.

Although hydropower, as an emission-free renewable energy, is a reliable source of energy to mitigate climate change, its development will increase river exploitation by human activities. The environmental impacts associated with small hydropower plants, although smaller than for traditional dammed systems, have been found to be strongly affected by changing the natural flow regime, mainly by releasing a constant residual flow to the river. This minimal flow release policy adversely affects both the morphological and ecological status of the riparian ecosystem. Nowadays, in some countries, proportional allocation rules are applied aiming at mimic the natural flow variability. These dynamic rules are part of the environmental guidance in the United Kingdom. In a context in which the full hydropower potential is reached in a few years, a solution to optimize the water allocation seems essential. In this work, we propose a model that enables to simulate a wide range of water allocation rules (static and dynamic) for a specific hydropower plant and to evaluate their associated economic and ecological benefits. The optimal water allocation rules can be identified on the Pareto's frontier of the efficiency plot resulting from the simulations. As a viable alternative to commonly used constant minimal flow policies, non-proportional repartition rules are defined. They are then compared to proportional and constant minimal flow policies. Economic and ecological efficiencies are found to be substantially improved in the case of using non-proportional water allocation rules. Finally, the goal of the project is to integrate the stream-scale model to a large-scale model that optimizes the positioning of the Small Hydropower Plant within a catchment.

Bio: Pierre Razurel started a PhD at the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment in February 2016. Supervised by the Professor Paolo Perona, the goal of his project is to develop a catchment-scale optimization model for planning small-hydropower design, location and operation. Having a strong interest for the water resources management, he received his Master's degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, in 2014.