Multisector Planning of Integrated WaterEnergy Systems: Designing and Operating Hydropower to Support High Shares of Intermittent Renewables in Power Systems

Abstract

The world is off track in meeting energy, social and climate objectives defined in the Paris Agreement and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Global emissions continue steadily increasing while heatwaves, droughts, and flood events across the globe are notorious and affecting billions of people worldwide, contributing further to poverty, hunger, and instability. The energy sector contributes about 40% of global emissions, from which the electricity sector is the most significant contributor. As such, power systems transformation, transitioning to clean sources, is vital for addressing the climate crisis. Accelerating renewable technologies adoption in power systems, particularly from intermittent sources such as wind and solar, is required to align with global climate initiatives. Despite all possible environmental, social, and economic benefits of intermittent renewable sources, their variable nature challenges the ability of power system operators to balance electricity supply and demand at any given time. Hydropower has been seen as the leading enabler of intermittent sources because it can cost-effectively store water and quickly respond to intermittent renewables' short-, medium- and long-term variabilities. However, hydropower dams have adverse economic and ecological impacts, as they fragment fish migration routes and change rivers' physical and chemical characteristics, altering the hydrological seasonality. Hydropower dams play a critical role in social and economic development, linking diverse sectors that promote productive activities essential for humans. They are embedded in complex human-natural systems where changes affect water, food, and the environment to differing degrees. This complexity must be considered when designing plans and operating strategies for hydropower dams and intermittent renewable sources to simultaneously achieve service level improvements and SDGs. This thesis aims to support decision-makers in designing, operating, and balancing trade-offs in complex water-energy systems by responding to how planners can design and intervene in spatially distributed, climate change-impacted and interdependent water-energy systems where performance and sectoral benefit distribution depend not only on what cross-sectoral infrastructure is built, when and where but also on how existing and new infrastructure are operated conjunctively.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Mathaios Panteli (Supervisor) & Julien Harou (Supervisor)