DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), announced nine new national lab-directed projects to advance the HydroWIRES (Water Innovation for a Resilient Electricity System) Initiative.

HydroWIRES aims to maximize hydropower’s contributions to a decarbonized, reliable, and resilient grid. V&R Energy is honored and excited to be a part of the project “A Framework for Addressing Hydropower Modeling Gaps in Grid Planning and Operation Studies” led by PNNL. Project Partners are NREL and INL. This project will provide a critical update to dynamic models of hydropower generators that were developed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Researchers will also develop tools that provide an accurate, updated representation of water availability and hydropower generation constraints in different models. These accurate representations will allow system planners and operators a more realistic understanding of operating reserves, resulting in fewer unexpected outages.