Hydropower Resource Assessment at Existing Reclamation Facilities

Executive Summarypurposes to support further evaluation of a potential site. The tool allows forthe user to change assumptions, such as turbine selection, flow exceedance, orcosts, if additional site specific information is available. The tool does notsubstitute the need for a feasibility study.Site Evaluation and ResultsTable ES-2 summarizes economic results, indicated by number of sites withinspecified benefit cost ratio ranges, and total power capacity and energyproduction for the 191 sites with hydropower potential. Sites with lower benefitcost ratios would be less economic to develop. In general, sites with a higherbenefit cost ratio had higher installed capacities (measured in megawatts [MW])and more annual energy production potential (measured in megawatt hours[MWh]).Table ES-2 Sites with Hydropower Potential within Benefit Cost Ratio(with Green Incentives) RangesBenefit Cost Ratio Range No. ofSitesTotal InstalledCapacity (MW)Total AnnualProduction (MWh)0 to 0.25 62 10.4 35,0410.25 to 0.5 35 15.7 57,9550.5 to 0.75 24 17 67,3750.75 to 1.0 27 40.5 147,8711.0 to 2.0 36 79.9 375,353Greater than or equal to 2.0 7 104.8 484,653Total 191 268.3 1,168,248Table ES-3 (at the end of this summary) shows 70 sites with benefit cost ratios(with green incentives) greater than 0.75. Although the standard for economicviability is a benefit cost ratio of greater than 1.0, sites with benefit cost ratiosof 0.75 and higher were ranked given the preliminary nature of the analysis. Theresults show a potential of approximately 225MW of installed capacity and 1.0million MWh of energy could be produced annually at existing Reclamationfacilities if all sites with a benefit cost ratio greater than 0.75 are summed.Individual sites range from a 125 kW installed capacity to about 26 MWinstalled capacity.Because of the uncertainty in green energy incentive prices, benefit cost ratioswith and without green incentives are calculated. Of the 17 western states, statelevel green incentive programs were identified in Arizona, California, andWashington. Federal green incentives are also available. The benefits analysisincludes available state and Federal green incentives to calculate economicbenefits, and the resulting benefit cost ratios.The Resource Assessment considers potential regulatory constraints related towater supply, fish and wildlife considerations, and effects on Native Americans,ES-4 – March 2011