1. Review ongoing and planned industry research efforts.
2. Identify and suggest specific research issues/topics to address.
3. Identify organizations that can support or undertake new research.
4. Prepare/disseminate a report to document/communicate Forum information/recommendations.

In preparation for the forum, synopses of current and recently conducted hydro-related R&D programs and projects were solicited from organizations known to be active in the field. These synopses were assembled and provided to forum participants as background information. They are a beneficial resource for considering what is being and has recently been done, who is doing/has done it, and who is interested or has expertise in a particular topic area.

Top 10 Recommendations

Identifying the industry’s top ten R&D recommendations risks over-simplification of the Forum’s results; nonetheless, such a compilation brings attention to key priorities on which there is a degree of consensus. The following ten areas for R&D were top ranked from among 29 candidate recommendations scored by forum delegates. Each of these ten recommendations received a consensus score exceeding 85 percent (normalized to 100 percent for the top-ranked item).

Number 1: Quantifying and Communicating Hydro’s Value Compared to the Power Mix

Needs include developing objective criteria for measuring and valuing hydropower’s non-power attributes. Criteria should be based on internationally recognized standards, should permit comparisons across generation sources, recognize emissions as well as effects on aquatic and land resources, and take into account the entire life cycle of facilities associated with electricity production.

Number 2: Continue Advanced Hydro Turbine System (AHTS) Program Development and Deployment

Achieving progress of the Advanced Hydro Turbine System (AHTS) program, which aims to reduce mortality of fish passing through turbines. Recommended new areas of emphasis include water quality improvement without compromising energy generation efficiency.

Number 3: Develop Business Model for O&M Decision Support Based on Condition Monitoring

Condition monitoring equipment and systems are increasingly being used. However, the availability of new information poses the conundrum of how to optimally use this information for making both major and minor business decisions in support of facilities operation and maintenance.

Number 4: Improve Methods to Quantify Costs and Benefits from Ancillary Services

Hydro plant owners and operators recognize that the ancillary services often provided by their facilities are valuable; however, market structures often fail to appropriately recognize these values. As a consequence, returns to owners and projects are often less than they would be
if these values were appropriately acknowledged.

Number 5: Hydro Education and Outreach

There is a need to ensuring that constituencies are suitably informed about hydro issues. In this area, there are needs to: identify effective educational methods and content; research the best ways to transfer knowledge; update and maintain factual content and methods; and develop communication networks to inform policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and the public.

Number 6: Support Green Power Acceptance for Hydro

In some regions, electricity is marketed as “green”—e.g., from sources that are environmentally beneficial compared to alternatives. Projects in this area include determining how to gain acceptance for hydro within green marketing programs.


Number 7: Hydropower Competency Management Program

Workforce issues are increasing in priority, especially because of loss and projected loss of personnel due to retirements. Projects in this area include those that focus on inventorying the skills and competencies that are needed for hydro facilities operation, and developing techniques and strategies for addressing identified needs.

Number 8: Hydro-Related R&D Technology Transfer

Much information is available that is, or may be, applicable to problems and areas of need. However, better tools and processes are needed for communicating and sharing information, both from research activities and operational experience.

Number 9: Determine Operating Life Effects Due to More Severe Load Operations

In recent years, many hydro projects have begun operating in ways not envisioned during their original design. Work is needed to determine how equipment is affected, and also to identify mitigative actions and tools for predicting and preventing failures.

Number 10: Protocols for Measuring Mitigation Effectiveness

In recent years, hydro project owners have engaged in many instances of implementing environmental mitigation measures. However, it is generally not known whether the measures have been effective—i.e., did they accomplish the desired results? Knowledge gained from research in this area could help in designing future migtigative measures, and could help to avoid ineffective mitigation.

Where Does The Industry Go From Here?

A key question, now that the 2001 Forum is concluded, is “where do we go from here?” Each hydro-industry organization has its own goals, and it was not the purpose of the Forum to prescribe how needed and beneficial R&D is to be pursued.

In some instances, R&D candidates may represent commercial opportunities that private organizations can pursue—e.g., to develop a product that can be marketed to the hydro industry. In other cases, R&D candidates suggest opportunities for collaboration on research and development endeavors among organizations sharing interests in achieving a favorable outcome. In still other cases, the benefits of the R&D may be too broad for gaining these types of support—e.g., as may be the case where broad societal benefits are the hoped-for result—and such candidates would be appropriate for support by federal government agencies or by organizations pursing humanitarian interests (e.g., foundations).

What happened after the 1992 Forum may be instructive. Although only a few instances are known where R&D candidates from the 1992 event were directly transformed into research projects, it is clear that the forum stimulated a renewed level of interest in hydro-related R&D.

Direct translation into R&D projects did occur, however. For example, the need for investigation of variable/adjustable speed turbine technology was identified at the 1992 Forum. Subsequent to the forum, EPRI engaged Harza Engineering Company (now part of Montgomery Watson Harza) to investigate this advanced hydro technology.

Many—perhaps most—of the effects were less direct. For example, following the 1992 Forum, EPRI did a thorough examination of its research priorities in light of the forum’s results. (Following the 2001 Forum, EPRI is “recalibrating” the forum’s results, in consideration of its hydro-member interests.) Also, after the 1992 Forum, the National Hydropower Association revisited the forum’s results in light of its members’ interests, to help in shaping NHA’s R&D-related agenda.

Subsequent to the 1992 Forum, a host of improvements were developed and implemented in the areas of hydro information/automation/controls. Many of the needs in these areas identified during the forum have been largely fulfilled through the activities of numerous private commercial companies, consortia, and through collaborative efforts.

An important collaboration that has roots in the 1992 Forum is the industry-government partnership for pursuing the Advanced Hydro Turbine System program. This multi-year, multi-million dollar effort has been the cornerstone of the U.S. Department of Energy’s hydropower research and development program for several years. This program brings together power producing organizations, manufacturers, public resource agencies, research organizations, and others to cooperate in significantly advancing the state-of-the-art of hydro turbine technology.

The 2001 Forum, by identifying organizations engaged in various types of hydro-related research and development, and by documenting forum participants’ ideas about prospective collaborations, can be helpful in facilitating intra-industry R&D-related communication and “technology transfer.”

The results from the 2001 Forum, as documented in this report, provide a valuable resource for hydro-related R&D. Although the forum results are not prescriptive, they nonetheless can be used to help during the development, shaping, and guiding of the hydro industry along its future paths for research and development.

Order The Full Report

HCI Publications is distributing hard copies of the report for $40.00, and CD-ROM copies for $10.00. To receive ordering information click here.

The full report lists and describes the 29 R&D candidates that were top-ranked by forum participants. The report also documents much of the substance of the 2001 R&D Forum as described in the 91 RDIDs (R&D candidates) and the 147 SIDs (research synopses).

In addition, appendices to Part 1 provide listings of participating organizations, participants, and contact information (Appendices A and B). Appendix C includes a cross-reference between RDIDs and SIDs. This cross reference can be used to locate RDIDs and SIDs that are related to an R&D candidate or topic that is of particular interest. Each synopsis is also identified by a “SID” number. These SID descriptions are provided in Part 2 of the full report.