Study Says Corps' Aging Hydroelectric Infrastructure Underfunded

Michael Harris, Online Editor, HydroWorld.com
November 02, 2012 | 2 Comments

A report from the National Research Council's Committee on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources, Engineering and Planning concludes that the federal government is underfunding hydropower projects.

The study, titled, "Corps of Engineers Water Resources Infrastructure: Deterioration, Investment, or Divestment?", focuses on the operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of Corps dams and hydropower-producing facilities.

The Corps is the federal government's largest producer of hydroelectricity, and about a quarter of the nation's hydropower capacity is Corps-owned.

However, the study shows that 90% of the Corps' hydroelectric projects are 30 years or more older, although funding for new project construction and major rehabilitation has declined steadily since the mid-1980s. The report also says more than 50% of the Corps' fleet of plants have exceeded the 50-year lives they were designed for, essentially giving the Corps several options for their continued operation:

Business as usual. Accept degraded performance and the consequences of gradual or sudden failure of infrastructure components.
Increase federal funding for operations, maintenance and rehabilitation.
Divest or decommission parts of the Corps infrastructure to reduce operations, maintenance and rehabilitation obligations.
Increase revenue from direct project beneficiaries for maintenance costs.
Expand public-private partnerships for portions of existing infrastructure.
Adopt some combination of options 2-5.

"More specific direction from the U.S. Congress regarding priority investments for Corps water infrastructure will be crucial to sustaining the agency's high priority and most valuable infrastructure," the report says. "The executive branch also could play a more aggressive role in promoting dialogue between the Corps and the Congress on existing infrastructure investments and priorities."

HydroWorld.com reported in October that the Corps' New Orleans District is seeking engineering services in its Mississippi Valley Division.

2 Comments

Dennis Houghton
November 6, 2012

An un-inspected, unregulated privately owned dam has collapsed today in King county, Washington state. Despite local requests to the state and USCoE no corrective action was taken. The dam had no building permits and used a time proven design with few catastropic failures. No injuries were reported but downstream flood damage to public and private property is significant. When the dam owner was asked what he would do to pay for that downstream damage he rudely slapped his flat tail in the mud and scurried off muttering something that sounded like "I built that!" or at least "snort,snort,snort".

Dams are not a problem; the potential energy in the impoundment reservoir is the problem.

ANONYMOUS
November 4, 2012

Maximizing use of available US hydropower resources is the most cost effective way to increase domestic RE capacity. For most hydropower locations, most of the infrastructure already exists. All that is needed is to upgrade the decades-old turbines and generators with modern equipment.

We should also install turbines & generators in the thousands of marginal locations that are currently going unused. Adding generating capacity by utilizing these thousands of domestic small and medium size hydropower resources is far less expensive and can be done much quicker than by using wind or solar. Hydropower also has the huge added advantage that its output can quickly and easily be ramped up or down to meet demand, unlike wind or solar.

Congress recently passed legislation to reduce the significant federal regulatory hurdles limiting development of new domestic small and medium sized hydropower plants. Congress should now take a further step towards greatly expanding economical RE capacity in the US by turning over the massive hydropower assets presently controlled by the USACoE to the private sector. There is presently no longer any national strategic rationale for having these assets under control of the US Army. Plus, the private sector would upgrade and operate these hydropower assets at no cost to federal taxpayers.