Generating More Hydroelecticity While Ensuring the Safety: Resilience Assessment Study for Bukhangang Watershed in South Korea

Abstract

The recent integrated water management policy and carbon-neutral policy can be seen as a turning point that changed the major frameworks of water resource policy and energy policy in the world. Values of hydropower reservoirs, directly related to both policies, should be re-evaluated in terms of resilience. In the past, hydropower reservoirs in Korea have contributed both to flood control and to generating electricity when operating dams within the limited water level during flood seasons. Under such limited operations, the power loss would be inevitable. Therefore, in this study, the concept of resilience was introduced for application to the operation of the hydropower reservoir to minimize such power loss. Also, the framework was able to be used for evaluating power generation performance when setting the target function to the maximization of electricity sale profit. HEC-5 was used for deriving the optimal operation rule, and the scenario was established by referring to the procedure of the general multiple-reservoir operation plan in Korea. As a result of application to the proposed framework, the operation rule that produces the maximum amount of electricity sales was presented, and it was confirmed that flood control and water usage performance could additionally be evaluated. When comparing the past data with optimal operation results for the period 2006~2013, it was found that the resilient operation increased by about 19.83% in terms of electricity generation. In the near future, if various scenarios are added and economic analysis is accompanied, it will be able to judge the best economic effects and the least opportunity costs.