Mitch Clement (Fellow, Hydro Research Foundation; Graduate Research Assistant, CADSWES; Graduate Student, Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder)

Abstract: Installed wind generation capacity has grown substantially in recent years and is projected to continue to grow at a rapid pace. Hydropower is a valuable resource which offers the potential to balance the variability of wind generation and can help coordinate wind generation with power demand. Hydropower’s capacity as a balancing reserve is limited, however, by non-power operational constraints. CADSWES developed a framework with a realistic hydropower model of the Mid-Columbia River in central Washington to evaluate the impact of wind generation on the hydro system, including the ability to meet all non-power constraints. This presentation will summarize the use of RiverWare optimization to model integrated wind generation in the highly-constrained Mid-Columbia system. In addition, it will highlight enhancements made to RiverWare to model total dissolved gas and autocorrelation in reach flows in the Mid-Columbia model.