Subject: Hydroelectric Power Plants Catchment Area Posted: 12/7/2018 Viewed: 8161 times
Dear all,
I have a question about the modelling of hydroelectric power plants with WEAP.I have several hydroelectric power plants on the mainstream of the river basin (currently I am working on a subbasin) that I am working on.
And I have two monitoring gauges. I divided the whole subbasin into two catchments by using that monitoring gauges. So my pour points are the monitoring stations. I provided to the headflow into the mainstream (there is another subbasin on the upstream which I am not modelling).
I put the runoff/infiltration link node just before where the monitoring station is. The thing that puzzles me is this: How can I truly represent the drainage area of the hydroelectric power plants?
I think that the procedure that I am following is not able to reflect the water catchment area of the hydroelectric power plants. And there is no info required by WEAP regarding the catchment area.
We provide volume-elevation curve but it is to calculate the surface area of the dam lake. What should I do with the hydroelectric power plants? Should I select the location of them as the pour points?
I would be very glad if you could help. Thanks in advance,
Sincerely,
Zeynep
Ms. Anne Hereford
Subject: Re: Hydroelectric Power Plants Catchment Area Posted: 1/2/2019 Viewed: 8045 times
Dear Zeynep,
Are your monitoring gauge data on the same river as the dams?
If i understand the set-up of your model correctly, i would suggest the following:
-Yes, use the dams as pour points in your model. This way WEAP can model inflow into the reservoir based on contributing area.
-Keep the stream gauges as pour points also. If they are downstreamm of the dams, they will reflect reservoir operations rules you have entered into the system as well as contributions from the catchment area between the dam and the gauge.
Hope this is helpful. Please respond if i have misuderstood your model.
Anne
Ms. Zeynep Özcan
Subject: Re: Hydroelectric Power Plants Catchment Area Posted: 1/3/2019 Viewed: 8038 times
Dear Anne,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, my monitoring stations are on the same rivers with the dams. I thought that selecting the dams as the pour points will create too many small catchments (which I think will make the things a bit more complex). Hence, I decided to follow the following procedure:
--> First, I calculated the drainage areas of the dams,
-->Then, I calculated the percentage of them based on the total catchment area,
--> Finally, instead of having a single runoff/infiltration link, I divided this link into several links (based on the number and location of the dams)
--> I set the runoff fraction according to the drainage area of the dams.
I hope this procedure makes sense. I would greatly appreciate any feedback.
Zeynep
Ms. Anne Hereford
Subject: Re: Hydroelectric Power Plants Catchment Area Posted: 1/4/2019 Viewed: 8019 times
Hi Zeynep,
I think your solution to the problem is a good one.
One detail that might be lost with this approach is if you are including land use (and its affects on runnoff/infiltration) in your model and if there is significant variation in the proportion of different land classes between the dam drainage area and the overall drainage area.
Best,
Anne
