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Unlocking Hydropower Potential from Environmental Flows for Energy-Water Resilience

This white paper examines how mandated environmental flow (E-flow) releases at hydropower dams can be leveraged to generate renewable energy while maintaining ecological integrity. Environmental flows sustain aquatic ecosystems but often bypass turbines, representing lost generati...

DeNeale, S., Connor, M., and McManamay, R.

Integrated Water-Energy Resilience Research and Testbeds

Water availability increasingly constrains the reliability and flexibility of water-dependent energy systems, including hydropower, thermoelectric generation, and grid operations. Hydrologic extremes, shifting demand, aging infrastructure, and cross-sector pressures are intensifyi...

Negron-Juarez, R., Amusat, O., Koven, C., and Viers, J.

A Framework for Improving Locational Marginal Price Estimates for Technoeconomic Analysis of Hydropower Investments and Operational Decisions

The focus is on improving the analytics supporting hydropower investment decisions through the more accurate characterization of the locational marginal prices (LMPs) that will define future energy payments. Enhanced analytics around LMP prediction could also be used to improve op...

Balducci, P., DeSomber, K., and Zhou, Z.

Employing AI-Enabled Prognostics for Energy-Water Resilience

This white paper focuses on strengthening the resilience and efficiency of hydropower systems at the energy-water nexus through AI-enabled prognostics and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. It emphasizes integrating digital intelligence with physical infrastructure to optimize...

Zhao, S., Qiu, F., and Agalgaonkar, Y.

Accounting for Water-Energy Co-Benefits of Floating Photovoltaics (FPV)

Floating photovoltaic projects, as well as those that span over waterways (i.e. canopy), present potential technological and economic advantages over ground-mounted systems that have fueled rapid global growth in installed capacity in recent years. Aside from expanding generation,...

Fluet-Chouinard, E., Jorgensen, J., Cotter, E., Niazi, H., Wild, T., Chalishazar, V., Pracheil, B., Griffiths, N., Hansen, C., and Chowdhury, K.

Unlocking Small-scale Hydropower using Water Infrastructure for National Energy Security

Reliable local energy generation and long-duration energy storage are critical to balancing peak demands and providing distributed emergency backup near both urban and rural populations. However, small-scale (< 10 MW) hydropower faces barriers, including siting, permitting, water ...

Stokes-Draut, J., Taylor, M., and Rao, P.

Advancing Energy-Water Resilience in California: A Framework for Integrated Water and Power Management Opportunities

This white paper identifies opportunities to advance energy-water resilience in California, using the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) system. It addresses the critical intersection of both water for energy and energy for water management, emphasizing how...

Mork, E.

Agentic Optimization for Resilience in Hydropower Reservoir Systems

The growing electricity demand in the U.S. requires a resilient energy strategy. Hydropower is a major component of that strategy but is subject to environmental and human stressors that impact its dependability. AI-driven reinforcement learning, called "Agentic" learning, presen...

Schwenk, J., Garcia-Cardona, C., Bennett, K., Singh, S., and Brelsford, C.