Development of Automated Approaches for Hydropower Potential Estimations and Prospective Hydropower Plants Siting

Authors

  • Nikolay Arefiev Saint-Petersburg Polytechnical University
  • Olga Nikonova Saint-Petersburg Polytechnical University
  • Nikolay Badenko JSC VNIIG, aboratory of Geographic Information Systems and Technologies
  • Timofey Ivanov JSC VNIIG, aboratory of Geographic Information Systems and Technologies
  • Vyacheslav Oleshko JSC VNIIG, aboratory of Geographic Information Systems and Technologies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17770/etr2015vol2.260

Keywords:

Geographic information systems, Hydropower potential, Hydropower plants siting

Abstract

Hydropower potential studies usually include estimation of hydropower resources and creating propositions for hydropower development on study area. The current paper describes authors’ study, dedicated to development of methodological approaches and software designed for solving problems stated above. Process automation is achieved by using geographic information systems (GIS) and additional programs (Python language was used).

Hydropower potential estimation is the key element for understanding future prospects of hydropower development within the study area. The latest large-scale hydropower potential studies of Russian territories were held in 1940-1980. In those times, such researches were carried out almost without any automation, so calculation process was time-consuming. As a result, only hydropower potential of large and several medium-sized rivers was estimated; hydropower potential assessments of small rivers were conducted only using approximate approach.

Nowadays, implementation of technologies and software products, such as geographic information systems, contributes to development of methodologies, which can be used to automate business-processes in different scientific disciplines, including processes of hydropower potential estimation and prospective hydropower plants siting. In comparison with former studies, GIS allow to reduce labor work significantly and to perform analysis of large study areas and large number of streams (including small rivers) in relatively short time using up-to-date topographical, hydrological and hydrographical information.

Authors have developed and tested methodological approach and GIS-tools for automated hydropower potential estimation. Re-estimation of hydropower potential was fulfilled by the authors for the most part of Russia. The data for more than 10 000 river’s was compared to the results of prior studies (data, such as river basin area, annual river flow, hydropower potential). The gross hydropower capacity of rivers and gross hydropower potential were estimated as 350 GW and  3,07*103 TWh respectively.

The next step in hydropower potential studies is prospective hydropower plants siting. Authors developed methodological approach and GIS-tools to automate this process. The GIS-tools provide comparison of site alternatives based on their hydropower parameters; transport, infrastructure, electricity network proximity; topographic situation and other factors affecting site suitability. Algorithm of automation and results of the search siting are presented.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Nikolay Arefiev, Saint-Petersburg Polytechnical University
    Civil Engineering Institute
  • Olga Nikonova, Saint-Petersburg Polytechnical University
    Civil Engineering Institute

References

RusHydro: Program of small hydropower development (rus). Available from: http://www.rushydro.ru/industry/res/tidal/ (Accessed on 15.04.2013

Shestopalov P.V. Why only third part of hydropower potential of Northern Caucasus is used? // Energopolis, July – August 2012, pp.36-37 (rus). Available from: http://energypolis.ru/portal/2012/1484-pochemu-gidroyenergeticheskij-potencial-severnogo.html (Accessed on 05.09.2013

Grigoriev S.V. Potential water resources of small rivers in USSR. Leningrad, «Gidrometioizdat», 1946. – 115p.

Voznesenskiy A.N. Hydropower resources of USSR. Moscow, «Nauka», 1967. – 598p.

Feldman B.N., Mikhailov L.P., Markanova T.K. Small hydro. Moscow, «Energoizdat», 1989. – 184p

Punys, P., Dumbrauskas, A., Kvaraciejus, A., Vyciene, G. Tools for small hydropower plant resource planning and development: A review of technology and applications // Energies 2011. 4 (9) , pp. 1258-1277

Douglas G. Hall, Shane J. Cherry, Kelly S. Reeves, Randy D. Lee, Gregory R. Carroll, Garold L. Sommers, Kristine L. Verdin. Water Energy Resources of the United States with Emphasis on Low Head/Low Power Resources, IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY, 2004.

National Hydrography Dataset (USA). URL:http://nhd.usgs.gov/index.html (Accessed on 30.08.2013

SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data. URL: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/ (Accessed on 30.08.2013

Feizizadeh. B., Haslauer, 2012, GIS-based procedures of hydropower potential for Tabriz basin, Iran, GI_Forum 2012, Salzburg, Asutria, July 3-6, 2012, pp.492-502.

Dante G. Larentis, Walter Collischonn, Francisco Olivera, Carlos E.M. Tucci. Gis-based procedures for hydropower potential spotting, Energy 35 (2010), pp.4237-4243.

A. Ballance, D. Stephenson, R. A. Chapman and J. Muller. A geographic information systems analysis of hydropower potential in South Africa. Journal of Hydroinformatics 2 (2000), pp.247-254.

Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, International Hydropower Association, November 2010, 220 p.

Russian water register database (rus). Available from: http://textual.ru/gvr/ (Accessed on 05.09.2013

Dean Djokic, Comprehensive Terrain Preprocessing Using Arc Hydro Tools. ESRI, 2008.

GIS-service of Federal State Budgetary Institution "Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute"Available from: http://www.aari.nw.ru/main.php?lg=1 (Accessed on 26.09.2013).

Badenko N.V., Ivanov T.S., Oleshko V.A., GIS methods for searching of feasible HPP sites // Magazine of civil engineering . 2013. №4(39). pp. 70–82.

Downloads

Published

2015-06-17

How to Cite

[1]
N. Arefiev, O. Nikonova, N. Badenko, T. Ivanov, and V. Oleshko, “Development of Automated Approaches for Hydropower Potential Estimations and Prospective Hydropower Plants Siting”, ETR, vol. 2, pp. 41–50, Jun. 2015, doi: 10.17770/etr2015vol2.260.