Hydropower represents approximately 20% of the world’s energy supply, is viewed as both vulnerable to global climate warming and an asset to reduce climate altering emissions, and is increasingly the target of improved regulation to meet multiple ecosystem service benefits. It is within this context that the recent decision by the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject studies of climate change in its consideration of reoperation of the Yuba-Bear Drum-Spaulding hydroelectric facilities in northern California is shown to be poorly reasoned and risky. Given the rapidity of climate warming, and its anticipated impacts to natural and human communities, future long-term fixed licenses of hydropower operation will be ill prepared to adapt if science-based approaches to incorporating reasonable and foreseeable hydrologic changes into study plans are not included. The licensing of hydroelectricity generation can no longer be issued in isolation due to downstream contingencies such as domestic water use, irrigated agricultural production, ecosystem maintenance, and general socioeconomic well-being. At minimum, if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is to establish conditions of operation for 30-50 years, licensees should be required to anticipate changing climatic and hydrologic conditions for a similar period of time.

This report is to develop a list of likely candidate dams for removal within the Muskegon River Watershed based on a number factors. The report ranks 15 dams as the most favorable for removal, at minimal cost and with minimal public and private opposition based on available information.

Over the past two decades, watershed restoration has dramatically increased internationally. California has been at the forefront, allocating billions of dollars to restoration activities through legislation and voter-approved bonds. Yet, the implications of restoration remain ambiguous because there has been little examination of restoration accomplishments and almost no analysis of the political context of restoration. This article addresses these gaps, utilizing a case study of the Russian River basin in Northern California. We identify trends that shed light on both the ecological and the political implications of restoration at a basin scale by examining a database of 787 restoration projects implemented in the Russian River basin since the early 1980s. Although a total of over $47 million has been spent on restoration in the basin, dominant forms of restoration are limited in scope to small-scale projects that focus on technical solutions to site-specific problems. The majority of restoration efforts are devoted to road repair, riparian stabilization, and in-stream structures, accounting for 62% of all projects. These types of projects do not address the broader social drivers of watershed change such as land and water uses. We suggest that restoration can become more effective by addressing the entire watershed as a combination of social and ecological forces that interact to produce watershed conditions.

Over the past two decades, watershed restoration has dramatically increased internationally. California has been atthe forefront, allocating billions of dollars to restoration activities through legislation and voter-approved bonds. Yet, the implications of restoration remain ambiguous because there has been little examination of restoration accomplishments and almost no analysis of the political context of restoration. This article addresses these gaps, utilizing a case study of the Russian River basin in Northern California. We identify trends that shed light on both the ecological and the political implications of restoration at a basin scale by examining a database of 787 restoration projects implemented in the Russian River basin since the early 1980s. Although a total of over $47 million has been spent on restoration in the basin, dominant forms of restoration are limited in scope to small-scale projects that focus on technical solutions to site-specific problems. The majority of restoration efforts are devoted to road repair,riparian stabilization, and in-stream structures, accounting for 62% of all projects. These types of projects do not address the broader social drivers of watershed change such as land and water uses. We suggest that restoration can become more effective by addressing the entire watershed as a combination of social and ecological forces that interact to produce watershed conditions.

This Technical Guidance Note was primarily prepared as a contribution to the World Bank economic and sector work—mainstreaming environmental flow requirements into water resources investments and policy reforms jointly supported by the Environment Department and the Energy, Transport and Water Department. The technical note also forms a contribution to the Bank’s hydropower investments. The main objective of the note is to serve as a guidance document as opposed to a technical manual. It has been developed to assist World Bank staff and their clients to identify ways to better incorporate the benefits associated with environmental flow protection into hydropower dam projects.Most of the material in this note will be equally applicable to hydropower dams with either multiple objectives or a single objective, but the integration of environmental flow protection into projects with multiple objectives presents some special challenges. In addition, many issues covered in this note will be applicable to other types of water infrastructure projects.

Hydropower dams play a critical role in the health of river ecosystems throughout the United States, and hundreds of these dams will be relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the coming years. Such licenses lock in the operating and environmental protection requirements of such dams for periods of up to 50 years. Given the complex, dynamic nature of river ecosystems, as well as the impacts of climate change, there is pervasive scientific uncertainty about how to best manage dams for power production while protecting and enhancing environmental values such as water quality and fisheries. Unless dams are managed adaptively, with licenses that provide pathways for gathering and applying new knowledge and responding to changing conditions, we run the risk of locking in mistaken approaches and stymieing environmental improvements on our rivers for the next half century.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Integrated Licensing Process (ILP) is the newest licensing process for hydroelectric projects and is being implemented around the US today. The first license application filed under the ILP was submitted in December, 2006 by PPL Montana for the Mystic Lake Hydroelectric Project. The identification, evaluation and management of archaeological and historical (cultural) resources is an essential element of all hydroelectric licensing studies today. This paper details how the management of these non-renewable resources was made a part of the ILP on the Mystic Lake Project.

In April 2009, the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the development of hydrokinetic and renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). While the MOU resolved a long-standing jurisdictional impasse between the agencies, there remain unresolved regulatory matters regarding the approval and oversight of these emerging technologies. Now that the agencies have resolved the jurisdictional matter and committed to work together on this matter, however, such matters may be further resolved in a manner that would promote development of this vast renewable energy resource.

The federal licensing or relicensing of a hydroelectric project involves long and convoluted processes that can be very daunting. Those who carefully plan and organize a projected licensing effort in a comprehensive manner will face less difficulty. Managers of licensing projects and key decision makers participating on a hydro licensing team need to appreciate the various nuances and challenges they could face through the multi year process in order to adjust their approach as circumstances change through the process.

Each licensing project is unique and each prospective license applicant has a different management structure and company business philosophies. The planned licensing project needs to be adapted to work within these constraints. The size and complexity of the hydro project also can significantly affect the approach and level of effort needed to get the job done. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to take these variables into consideration when tailoring a licensing organization that is best adapted to suit the situation. The author will draw from his experience to present a variety of large and small licensing project examples.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), established in 1902, is best known for the dams, power plants, and canals it constructed in the 17 western states that led to homesteading and promoted the economic development of the West. Reclamation has constructed more than 600 dams and reservoirs including Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Reclamation is the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States. Its 58 power plants annually provide more than 40 billion kilowatt hours annually, generating nearly a billion dollars in power revenues, and producing enough electricity to serve six million homes.

In October 2006, Reclamation awarded a contract for the modernization of the 26 hydroelectric generating units at Hoover, Davis, and Parker Dams on the lower Colorado River. Hoover Dam power generation is used to meet load regulation requirements and fast, predictable, repeatable unit control provides significant benefits. The project upgrades all unit control and protection equipment, replacing some equipment dating back to the 1940s that was not easily maintainable.

Unique about this project was that Reclamation elected to obtain a commercial solution based on demonstrated success by the vendor in recent similar projects rather than issuing the traditional custom design specification. The vendor was to use commercially available components and previously proven designs. Reclamation identified work boundaries, conceptual requirements and objectives stating that cutting-edge technologies and custom solutions would not be considered.

L&S Electric, Inc. (Rothschild, Wis.), was awarded a $5.7 million contract for the modernization project to upgrade the existing mechanical governors to digital, install new digital generator and transformer protective relays, install new programmable-logic-controller-based unit controls, and replace static pilot exciters with new digital equipment. L&S Electric was responsible for system integration, engineering and equipment modernization, and was required to standardize the hardware design for all 26 units. Twenty months after the contract was awarded, the first six upgraded units were operational. This is no small feat considering that similar automation projects based on traditional government specifications have taken five to 10 years from award to operation.The benefits received from just eight of 26 upgrades have already improved power system control. Power system oscillations caused by rapid changes in demand during heavy summer power requirements were reduced during the summer of 2008 using the improved unit control responses. Significant improvements are expected in operating efficiency (power produced from water delivered) as the remaining upgrades are completed.