{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105066"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105066","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Low-head hydropower as a reserve power source for wind power","abstract":"Wind power generation faces intermittency challenges, typically requiring reserve power generation sources burning fossil fuels to maintain reliability of the electricity grid in the event of a decrease in wind. This study proposes an alternative hypothesis: that hydropower turbines installed at low-head dams can provide similar reserve power generation to support wind, thereby avoiding the externalities associated with fossil-fuel plants and conventional hydropower. Low-head dams, common across the United States, are used for flood control, securing municipal water supplies, and providing ample water depth for recreation. As a case study, hydropower potential at 13 such dams along a 150-kilometer reach of the Fox River (Northeastern Illinois, USA) was estimated using a HEC-RAS model calibrated with U.S. Geological Survey data. The output of the model was then analyzed to determine the capacity of the system and gauge its reliability both as a standalone generator and as a component in a coupled wind-hydropower system. Findings revealed that economic, environmental, and regulatory factors all affected the implementation of this low-head hydropower system. The system was found to perform reliably over a five-year time period in spite of significant long-term fluctuations in streamflow, thereby enabling it to offset the short-term variability of wind power. However, combining the low-head hydropower system with wind power limits the reliable output of the entire system to the lowest amount of power generated by the low-head hydropower system, regardless of how much wind power is deployed. The low-head hydropower system's relatively small capacity and inauspicious cost-benefit ratio suggest that this low-head hydropower system would be best suited for local applications rather than grid-scale operations, especially if environmental and regulatory considerations are included.","abstract_html":"Wind power generation faces intermittency challenges, typically requiring reserve power generation sources burning fossil fuels to maintain reliability of the electricity grid in the event of a decrease in wind. This study proposes an alternative hypothesis: that hydropower turbines installed at low-head dams can provide similar reserve power generation to support wind, thereby avoiding the externalities associated with fossil-fuel plants and conventional hydropower. Low-head dams, common across the United States, are used for flood control, securing municipal water supplies, and providing ample water depth for recreation. As a case study, hydropower potential at 13 such dams along a 150-kilometer reach of the Fox River (Northeastern Illinois, USA) was estimated using a HEC-RAS model calibrated with U.S. Geological Survey data. The output of the model was then analyzed to determine the capacity of the system and gauge its reliability both as a standalone generator and as a component in a coupled wind-hydropower system. Findings revealed that economic, environmental, and regulatory factors all affected the implementation of this low-head hydropower system. The system was found to perform reliably over a five-year time period in spite of significant long-term fluctuations in streamflow, thereby enabling it to offset the short-term variability of wind power. However, combining the low-head hydropower system with wind power limits the reliable output of the entire system to the lowest amount of power generated by the low-head hydropower system, regardless of how much wind power is deployed. The low-head hydropower system's relatively small capacity and inauspicious cost-benefit ratio suggest that this low-head hydropower system would be best suited for local applications rather than grid-scale operations, especially if environmental and regulatory considerations are included.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Auth, Trevor L."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Civil Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Stillwell, Ashlynn S.","Garcia, Marcelo H."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-08-23T20:36:05Z","date_published":"2019-08-23T20:36:05Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:44Z","subjects":["Low-Head Hydropower","Small Hydropower","Renewable Energy"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Trevor Auth"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105066","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Stillwell, Ashlynn S.","Garcia, Marcelo H."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Auth, Trevor L."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-08-23T20:36:05Z","2021-08-24T09:15:24Z","2019-04-22","2019-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Civil Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Low-Head Hydropower","Small Hydropower","Renewable Energy"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Trevor Auth"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105066"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Wind power generation faces intermittency challenges, typically requiring reserve power generation sources burning fossil fuels to maintain reliability of the electricity grid in the event of a decrease in wind. This study proposes an alternative hypothesis: that hydropower turbines installed at low-head dams can provide similar reserve power generation to support wind, thereby avoiding the externalities associated with fossil-fuel plants and conventional hydropower. Low-head dams, common across the United States, are used for flood control, securing municipal water supplies, and providing ample water depth for recreation. As a case study, hydropower potential at 13 such dams along a 150-kilometer reach of the Fox River (Northeastern Illinois, USA) was estimated using a HEC-RAS model calibrated with U.S. Geological Survey data. The output of the model was then analyzed to determine the capacity of the system and gauge its reliability both as a standalone generator and as a component in a coupled wind-hydropower system. Findings revealed that economic, environmental, and regulatory factors all affected the implementation of this low-head hydropower system. The system was found to perform reliably over a five-year time period in spite of significant long-term fluctuations in streamflow, thereby enabling it to offset the short-term variability of wind power. However, combining the low-head hydropower system with wind power limits the reliable output of the entire system to the lowest amount of power generated by the low-head hydropower system, regardless of how much wind power is deployed. The low-head hydropower system's relatively small capacity and inauspicious cost-benefit ratio suggest that this low-head hydropower system would be best suited for local applications rather than grid-scale operations, especially if environmental and regulatory considerations are included.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Trevor Auth, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-19 at 17:04.","The student, Trevor Auth, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2019-04-19 at 17:11.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-04-22 at 16:27.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13795 on 2019-08-22 at 15:07:35","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:36:05Z (GMT). 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This study proposes an alternative hypothesis: that hydropower turbines installed at low-head dams can provide similar reserve power generation to support wind, thereby avoiding the externalities associated with fossil-fuel plants and conventional hydropower. Low-head dams, common across the United States, are used for flood control, securing municipal water supplies, and providing ample water depth for recreation. As a case study, hydropower potential at 13 such dams along a 150-kilometer reach of the Fox River (Northeastern Illinois, USA) was estimated using a HEC-RAS model calibrated with U.S. Geological Survey data. The output of the model was then analyzed to determine the capacity of the system and gauge its reliability both as a standalone generator and as a component in a coupled wind-hydropower system. Findings revealed that economic, environmental, and regulatory factors all affected the implementation of this low-head hydropower system. The system was found to perform reliably over a five-year time period in spite of significant long-term fluctuations in streamflow, thereby enabling it to offset the short-term variability of wind power. However, combining the low-head hydropower system with wind power limits the reliable output of the entire system to the lowest amount of power generated by the low-head hydropower system, regardless of how much wind power is deployed. The low-head hydropower system's relatively small capacity and inauspicious cost-benefit ratio suggest that this low-head hydropower system would be best suited for local applications rather than grid-scale operations, especially if environmental and regulatory considerations are included.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-05-01","The student, Trevor Auth, accepted the attached license on 2019-04-19 at 17:04.","The student, Trevor Auth, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2019-04-19 at 17:11.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-04-22 at 16:27.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13795 on 2019-08-22 at 15:07:35","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T20:36:05Z (GMT). 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