Hydropower (Energy Gov) Flashcards
Adjustable-speed technology
Refers to machines that have the ability to enable the power consumed (pumps) or generated (turbines) to be varied, thus providing greater flexibility.
Ancillary services
Capacity and energy services (e.g. non-spinning operating reserve, frequency support, voltage support) provided by power plants that are able to respond on short notice, such as hydropower plants, and are used to ensure stable electricity and optimized grid reliability.
Also called grid services.
Balancing authority
Entity responsible for integrating resource plans ahead of time, maintaining load-interchange-generation balance within a balancing area, and supporting interconnection frequency in real-time.
Baseload
Minimum energy demand on a given electrical power system over a specific period of time.
Basin-scale
Encompassing the activities that occur within the area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
Biodiversity
The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Biogenic
Produced or brought about by living organisms
Biologically-based design
Design of hydropower equipment, such as turbines, that takes into account its direct or indirect biological effects on fish and other aquatic species.
Black start
A process of restoring a power station to operation without relying on the external electric power transmission network.
Bulk power
Power from generation facilities necessary to maintain reliability of the transmission system.
Bypass reach
The portion of a natural waterway between the intake and the tailrace where any and all flow usually comes from the spillway.
Capacity factor (net)
Ratio of a power plant’s actual output over a period of time to its potential output if it were possible for it to continuously operate at full nameplate capacity over the same period of time.
Cavitation
Phenomenon that affects hydropower turbines when vapor bubbles form and implode due to rapid pressure changes, generating shock waves that create cavities on the metal surface.
Civil works
Infrastructure of a hydropower project, such as dams, conduits, powerhouses, tunnels, and penstocks.
Closed-loop pumped storage hydropower
Consists of two reservoirs that are not connected to naturally flowing sources of water.
Condition-based maintenance
A maintenance program that recommends maintenance actions based on information collected from monitoring equipment through its life cycle.
Conduit
A manmade structure for conveying water, such as canals, tunnels, and/or pipelines
Control gate
A barrier that regulates water released from a reservoir to the power generation unit.
Critical infrastructure
Assets that are considered vital to the energy, economy, health, and/or safety security of the United States, such as storage reservoirs for water supply and flood management, dams for power production, and the electrical transmission grid.
Curtailment
Reduction of output (ramp down or shut down) that is a generation unit’s response to a grid operator’s request, or to market signals.
Cyber surrogate capabilities
Systems designed to help identify intrusions into the hydropower network by assessing suspicious network traffic or inconsistencies in system signals/operation.
Denitrification
A decrease of dissolved atmospheric nitrogen at a reservoir.
Digitization
The translation of analog systems to digital control systems not only solves traditional challenges for hydropower but also enables access to a new range of opportunities for the industry.
Digitalization
How translated digital control systems (see: digitization) are used to modify business practices and enhance how hydropower plants operate fundamentally.
Digital Transformation
The application of digital capabilities to not only solve traditional challenges for hydropower but also enable access to a new range of opportunities for the industry.
Dispatch
The operation of a generating unit within a power system at a designated output level to meet demand for electricity.
Distributed generation
Small, grid-connected energy generation systems located close to the load they serve.
Diversion
A facility that channels a portion of a river through a canal or penstock.
Draft tube
A water conduit, which can be straight or curved depending upon the turbine installation, which maintains a column of water from the turbine outlet and the downstream water level.
Economic dispatch
The operation of a generating unit within a power system at a designated output level to meet demand for electricity and generate energy at the lowest possible cost.
Electrical demand
Rate at which electricity is being consumed at a given instant or averaged over a specified period of time.
Electricity generation
The amount of electricity a generator produces during a specific period of time.
Energy arbitrage
Purchasing (storing) energy when electricity prices are low, and selling (discharging) energy when electricity prices are high.
Energy imbalance services (reserves)
A market service provided for the management of unscheduled deviations in individual generator output or load consumption.
Entrainment
The forced passage of fish in water flowing into a turbine or cooling water intake at a power plant.
Environmental flows
Flows required to protect natural, cultural, and recreational resources.
Fish ladder
A transport structure for safe upstream fish passage around hydropower projects.
Fish passage structure
Structure on or around a dam to facilitate the movement of migrating fish.
Fixed-speed technology
Pump and turbine units that are operated at a constant speed.
Flexibility
The ability of the power system or individual unit to quickly respond to variations in supply and/or demand.
Flow
Volume of water, expressed as cubic feet or cubic meters per second, passing a point in a given amount of time.
Flow regime
The magnitude, duration, timing, seasonality, and rate of change of flows in a natural waterway.
Forebay
Impoundment or reservoir immediately above a dam or intake structure at a hydropower plant.
Frequency regulation
Efforts by a balancing authority to maintain scheduled frequency in the grid.