ABSTRACT:

This resource contains the hydropower time series for 735 headwater hydropower dams operating under 3 different schemes – control rules, forecast-informed operations with perfect forecast, and forecast informed operations with deterministic forecast. The deterministic streamflow forecasts depend on seven drivers, that is, four large scale climate drivers— El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)—and three variables accounting for local processes—lagged inflow, snowfall, and soil moisture.

Start exploring the data by downloading the Rdata together with the open_file.R script. You will be able to find monthly-resolution time series outputs of our simulation, including the hydropower production, storage level, and water releases for each dam.

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains the hydropower time series for 1,593 hydropower dams operating under 3 different schemes – control rules, forecast-informed operations with perfect forecast, and forecast informed operations with deterministic forecast. The deterministic streamflow forecasts depend on six drivers, that is, four large scale climate drivers— El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)—and two variables accounting for local processes—lagged inflow and soil moisture.

Start exploring the data by downloading the Rdata together with the open_file.R script. You will be able to find monthly-resolution time series outputs of our simulation, including the hydropower production, storage level, and water releases for each dam.

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains the 21st century time series data for 1,593 hydropower dams, which collectively represent more than half of the world’s existing installed hydropower capacity (in 2016 when we conducted the study). The time series were generated by forcing a detailed dam model with monthly-resolution, 21st century (2001-2100) inflows—the model includes plant specifications, storage dynamics and realistic operating schemes.

We used inflows simulated by a Global Hydrological Model (GHM) forced by climate projections derived from three General Circulation Models (GCMs). The GCMs are CNRM-CM3 (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques), ECHAM5/MPIOM (Max Planck Institute of Meteorology) and LMDZ-4 (Institute Pierre Simon Laplace) (denoted CNRM, ECHAM and IPSL). These models belong to the World Climate Research Programme CMIP3 multi-model dataset and were selected to represent a range in projected precipitation change. For each GCM, two emissions scenarios were considered – IPCC SRES scenarios A2 and B1.

Start exploring the data by downloading the Rdata (each corresponding to a different GCM) together with the open_file.R script. You will be able to find monthly-resolution time series outputs of our simulation, including the hydropower production, storage level, and water releases for each dam.

Reference:
[1] Turner, S. W., Ng, J. Y., & Galelli, S. (2017). Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model. Science of the Total Environment, 590, 663-675.

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains the 20th century time series data for 1,593 hydropower dams, which collectively represent more than half of the world’s existing installed hydropower capacity (in 2016 when we conducted the study). The time series were generated by forcing a detailed dam model with monthly-resolution, 20th century (1906-2000) inflows—the model includes plant specifications, storage dynamics and realistic operating schemes.

Start exploring the data by downloading the Rdata together with the open_file.R script. You will be able to find monthly-resolution time series outputs of our simulation, including the hydropower production, storage level, and water releases for each dam.

Reference:
[1] Ng, J. Y., Turner, S. W., & Galelli, S. (2017). Influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation on global hydropower production. Environmental Research Letters, 12(3), 034010.

ABSTRACT:

This collection consists of hydropower simulation datasets from three related studies. 1,593 hydropower reservoirs, representing almost 40% of the world's existing installed electricity capacity (as of 2019), are studied. In the first study [1], time series are generated by forcing a detailed dam model with monthly-resolution, 20th century (1906-2000) inflows. This allows us to study the impact of climate variability on hydropower production. In the second study [2], 21st century (2001-2100) streamflow are used, enabling us to study the effect of climate change on hydropower. In the third study, we identify the value of streamflow forecast in hydropower production by simulating the reservoirs under three operating schemes – control rules, forecast-informed operations with perfect forecast, and forecast informed operations with deterministic forecast. Updated simulations for 735 headwater hydropower reservoirs can be found in version 2 of the resource.

References:
[1] Ng, J. Y., Turner, S. W., & Galelli, S. (2017). Influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation on global hydropower production. Environmental Research Letters, 12(3), 034010.
[2] Turner, S. W., Ng, J. Y., & Galelli, S. (2017). Examining global electricity supply vulnerability to climate change using a high-fidelity hydropower dam model. Science of the Total Environment, 590, 663-675.