Abstract
This study is aimed at evaluating the impacts of climate change (CC) on the water-energy-economics-continuum considering a storage type hydroelectricity project (STP). Inflows from ensembled CC scenarios for two RCPs (4.5 and 8.5) and three time-windows (near-future, mid-future, far-future) until the end of this century, generated from an earlier study by the same team, was used for the analysis. The proposed 1200 MW Budhigandaki Hydropower Project in Nepal is taken as a case. A set of reservoir operating rules were derived considering the baseline data which was then used to generate future energy and revenue at the monthly, seasonal and annual timescales. Results show that future annual energy is expected to increase by about 9–13% from the baseline. Furthermore, future revenue generation is projected to increase in the range of 20–28 million USD annually. This overall gain in the revenue due to additional energy generation is an anticipated positive impact of CC which is capable of contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases and minimizing fossil-fuel laden trade deficit. This study recommends that: STPs with the provision of flexible operating rules are desirable for climate resiliency in hydroelectricity; areas expected to witness decreased future hydroelectricity generation need to explore other alternative sources of renewable energy; and the policy instruments pertaining to the financial aspects of hydroelectricity should be continuously updated considering future conditions.
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Acknowledgements
The first author would like to thank the University Grants Commission (UGC), Nepal for the research grant (UGC Award No: PhD/73-74/S&T-9). The Budhigandaki Hydroelectric Project Development Committee (BGHP) and the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Government of Nepal are duly acknowledged for providing the necessary data for this research. We acknowledge Mr. Pawan Khatri and Mr. Dibesh Shrestha of Water Modeling Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Nepal) for their inputs to the paper.
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This research was partially funded by University Grants Commission (UGC), Nepal.
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Marahatta, S., Bhattarai, U., Devkota, L.P. et al. Unravelling the water-energy-economics-continuum of hydroelectricity in the face of climate change. Int J Energ Water Res 6, 323–335 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42108-021-00174-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42108-021-00174-w