Developing Concept of Water-energy Productivity to Evaluate Dez Dam Operation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, Faculty of Water & Environmental Engineering and, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

The “concept of productivity” in the context of WEN (water-energy nexus) is a new outlook to evaluate dam and power plant operation policies. Understanding and modeling the complicated nature of water-energy nexus (WEN) are essential to increase productivity. The performance of dams and hydropower plants is mostly evaluated by the amount of energy generated and/or meeting downstream demands. The present study investigates the historical operation efficiency of Dez dam and hydropower plant from 1972 to 2018 by defining the productivity indices of water footprint (WF) of electricity, energy economics, water-energy performance, WEN, and energy sustainability. Then, the correlation between the obtained results and Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) is evaluated. The results indicated that wet years, despite generating more energy, do not show necessarily the highest productivities, since two years with moderate drought and almost similar discharges (i.e., 2007-2008 and 2010-2011) showed the highest and lowest productivities during the operation period of Dez Dam, respectively. Such difference arises from overlooking full supply levels (FSL) in from 2008 to2017. The FSL of water years in 2007-2008 was calculated to be 325.13 masl while it was 350.91 masl for water years of 2010-2011. One can, therefore, conclude that maximum productivity can be achieved even during droughts by adopting an optimal operation policy.

Keywords


  1. Olsson, G. (2011). Water and energy nexus. Encyclopedia of sustainability science and technology
  2. Hussey, K., & Pittock, J. (2012). The energy–water nexus: Managing the links between energy and water for a sustainable future. Ecology and Society, 17(1).‏
  3. Ashrafi, S. M. (2019). Investigating Pareto Front Extreme Policies Using Semi-distributed Simulation Model for Great Karun River Basin. Journal of Hydraulic Structures, 5(1), 75-88
  4. . Lindström, A., & Grani, J. (2012). Large-scale water storage in the water, energy and food nexus: Perspectives on benefits, risks and best practices. Stockholm International Water Institute.‏
  5. Knook, L. (2016). The water footprint related to reservoir operation on a global scale (Master's thesis, University of Twente).‏
  6. Healy, R. W., Alley, W. M., Engle, M. A., McMahon, P. B., & Bales, J. D. (2015). The water-energy nexus: an earth science perspective (No. 1407). US Geological Survey.‏
  7. Lee, U., Han, J., Elgowainy, A., & Wang, M. (2018). Regional water consumption for hydro and thermal electricity generation in the United States. Applied Energy, 210, 661-672.‏
  8. Adib, A., Kashani, A., & Ashrafi, S. M. (2020). Merge L-Moment Method, Regional Frequency Analysis and SDI for Monitoring and Zoning Map of Short-Term and Long-Term Hydrologic Droughts in the Khuzestan Province of Iran. Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, Transactions of Civil Engineering, 1-14.‏
  9. Ashrafi, S. M., Gholami, H., & Najafi, M. R. (2020). Uncertainties in runoff projection and hydrological drought assessment over Gharesu basin under CMIP5 RCP scenarios. Journal of Water and Climate Change, 11(S1), 145-163.‏
  10. Zallaghi, E., Akhoond-Ali, A. M., & Ashrafi, S. M. (2020). Dataset on sensitivity of water-energy nexus to Dez Dam hydropower operation. Data in brief, 105454.‏ doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2020.105454
  11. Førsund, F. R. (2015). Hydropower economics (Vol. 217). Springer.‏
  12. - Stockholm Environment Institute,. manual of weap
  13. Molinos-Senante, M., & Sala-Garrido, R. (2017). Energy intensity of treating drinking water: understanding the influence of factors. Applied Energy, 202, 275-281.‏
  14. Beatriz Mayor, Ignacio Rodríguez-Muñoz, Fermín Villarroya, Esperanza Montero 1 ID and Elena López-Gunn,. 2017,. The Role of Large and Small Scale Hydropower forEnergy andWater Security in the SpanishDuero Basin, Sustainability J
  15. World Bank. (2020). Operation and Maintenance Strategies for Hydropower: Handbook for Practitioners and Decision Makers.‏
  16. Sadeghi, S. H., Moghadam, E. S., Delavar, M., & Zarghami, M. (2020). Application of water-energy-food nexus approach for designating optimal agricultural management pattern at a watershed scale. Agricultural Water Management, 233, 106071.‏
  17. Ashrafi, S. M., Mostaghimzadeh, E., & Adib, A. (2020b). Applying wavelet transformation and artificial neural networks to develop forecasting-based reservoir operating rule curves. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 65(12), 2007-2021.‏
  18. Hashimoto, T., Stedinger, J. R., & Loucks, D. P. (1982). Reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability criteria for water resource system performance evaluation. Water resources research, 18(1), 14-20.‏
  19. Safavi, H.R. and Golmohammadi, M.H., 2016. Evaluating the water resource systems performance using fuzzy reliability, resilience and vulnerability.
  20. Sandoval-Solis, S., McKinney, D. C., & Loucks, D. P. (2011). Sustainability index for water resources planning and management. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 137(5), 381-390.‏
  21. Mayor, B., Rodríguez-Muñoz, I., Villarroya, F., Montero, E., & López-Gunn, E. (2017). The role of large and small scale hydropower for energy and water security in the Spanish Duero Basin. Sustainability, 9(10), 1807.‏
  22. .‏ Nalbantis, I., & Tsakiris, G. (2009). Assessment of hydrological drought revisited. Water Resources Management, 23(5), 881-897.‏
  23. Tabari, H., Nikbakht, J., & Talaee, P. H. (2013). Hydrological drought assessment in Northwestern Iran based on streamflow drought index (SDI). Water resources management, 27(1), 137-151.‏
  24. Tennant, D.L. (1976). Instream flow regimens for fish, wildlife, recreation and related environmental resources. Fisheries, 1(4), pp.6-10.