Climate Change Action Plan
In 1993, President William Clinton's Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) Initiative
identified hydropower efficiency improvements as one of 44 actions intended to meet
greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals by the year 2000. As the owner and
operator of 75 major hydroelectric projects that account for 25 percent of all
hydropower generation in the country, the Corps of Engineers plays a critical role in helping to achieve this
objective for GHG emission reduction. Consequently, under Action #28 of the CCAP, the
Corps was tasked with identifying potential generation improvements at its hydroelectric
projects. This action required surveying the existing Corps hydroelectric projects to
determine the best potential candidates for generation improvement. Once these
opportunities were identified, the Department of Energy would issue
requests for proposals from non-federal partners interested in investing at
those projects.
To identify the best potential projects for generation improvement, a contract was
signed with Acres International Corporation to develop computer models to conduct
qualitative and quantitative screening of the 75 Corps hydroelectric projects. An
additional contract, with Apogee Research, Incorporated, was used to evaluate the potential
for non-Corps investment in hydropower improvements at Corps-owned facilities should
opportunities be identified through the screening process.
The first screening model was developed for qualitative screening of the projects to determine
their potential for further study. This model, known as the Matrix Model, was
to be used to calculate the relative potential for
generation improvement at the projects involved.
The second screening model, known as the Corps Generation Analysis Program, was developed
to perform more detailed quantitative screening of the potential projects identified
by the Matrix Model. The CGAP model computes such
parameters as: (1) changes in average annual energy for various project improvements,
(2) daily discharge changes associated with potential changes in reservoir storage
allocation or operation policies, (3) corresponding reductions in GHG emissions associated
with these changes, and (4) economic benefits and costs used to determine the feasibility
of proposed improvements in generation.
The final phase of the study would be to conduct
the qualitative and quantitative screening of the 75 projects using the models that had
been developed. The final screening phase of the study is awaiting further
funding.
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Last Updated:
2 May 2000
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