IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 16

guest editorial

Girish Behal and Kimberly Laing

global hydropower
current developments and future innovations

HYDROPOWER HAS BEEN UTIlized ubiquitously in various forms
throughout human history. In its most
rudimentary form, it has been used to
grind flour, to irrigate fields, and for
many other purposes. In the last 140plus years, it has been used increasingly
as a source of electric power. Globally,
large dams have been used to tame fastflowing rivers, create large reservoirs
for public use, and generate hydropower. These large dams have caused a
significant impact on societies, economies, and the environment. Hydropower has also been used as a mechanism to
store energy (often generated by nuclear
plants) for peak use.
The future looks interesting for hydropower to utilize new technologies,
reduce environmental impact, improve
sustainability, and support the integration
of renewable resources. Most recently,
hydropower has been growing globally
as a renewable and sustainable resource
by modifying existing infrastructure for
power generation. In addition, several
countries are looking to complete projects that have long been delayed due to
political and social factors.
With an eye toward discussing
where hydropower currently stands
globally and what we can expect in the
near future, we invited authors from
across the globe to give an overview
of the past and expected future of hydropower in their respective regions.
It should not come as a surprise to our
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2020.3001480
Date of current version: 19 July 2020

ieee power & energy magazine

readers that, in nearly every region of
the world, hydropower is being looked
at as a large storage asset, thus enabling
the integration of renewables and playing a major role in reducing carbon
emissions in the coming years.

In This Issue
Our first article in this issue of IEEE
Power & Energy Magazine, by Satish
Kumar Sharma and Vinod Batta, discusses the development of hydropower
in India and its role in
meeting the Indian government's growth and
sustainability goals.
Since the 1970s, hydropower development
in India has been limited due to government
policies, high costs,
and regulatory hurdles.
Hydropower is now
being revitalized as a
means to integrate renewables and create a
more sustainable and
energy-secure future
for India. The potential benefits of additional hydropower include flood control for the monsoon season and its use
as a peaking power source, in addition
to the traditional benefits of black start
and long economic life of the asset. The
authors suggest various policy measures
to encourage a renewed growth of hydropower, including the declaration of hydropower as renewable power, the development of support infrastructure, and the
introduction of new financial incentives.

In the second article, Tom Tellefsen, Jan van Putten, and Ole Gjerde
look at hydropower from a Norwegian
perspective. Thanks to favorable geography, the creation of reservoirs as
early as the 1800s, and subsequent
developments after World War II,
Norway currently possesses more than
half of Europe's hydropower storage
capacity. The transmission links between Norway and continental Europe
enable energy arbitrage and the faster
integration of renewable
resources. The NorNed
project is cited as an
example of the various
policy and energy market development concepts that have helped
integrate Nor wegian
hydro (and other) assets into the larger grid.
The mitigation of environmental and social
impacts of Norwegian
hydropower projects is
outlined. The authors
conclude with a discussion of the continued development of
Norwegian hydropower.
The next article, by Daniel Flores,
Andrew Bridgeman, Francois Welt,
Juan Jose Aveiro, Delfín Benítez, and
José Vallejos, is a case study on the
life extension and modernization studies of Acaray generating station, one
of the largest hydro power stations in
Paraguay. The authors begin the article
with a historical introduction of hydropower generation in Paraguay and at

Norway
currently
possesses
more than half
of Europe's
hydropower
storage
capacity.

september/october 2020

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020

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