Water-Related Power Plant Curtailments: An Overview of Incidents and Contributing Factors
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Water temperatures and water availability can affect the reliable operations of power plants in the United States. Data on water-related impacts on the energy sector are not consolidated and are reported by multiple agencies. This study provides an overview of historical incidents where water resources have affected power plant operations, discusses the various data sources providing information, and creates a publicly available and open access database that contains consolidated information about water-related power plant curtailment and shut-down incidents. Power plants can be affected by water resources if incoming water temperatures are too high, water discharge temperatures are too high, or if there is not enough water available to operate. Changes in climate have the potential to exacerbate uncertainty over water resource availability and temperature. Power plant impacts from water resources include curtailment of generation, plant shut-downs, and requests for regulatory variances. In addition, many power plants have developed adaptation approaches to reducing the potential risks of water-related issues by investing in new technologies or developing and implementing plans to undertake during droughts or heatwaves. This study identifies 42 incidents of water-related power plant issues from 2000-2015, drawing from a variety of different datasets. These incidents occur throughout the U.S., and affect coal and nuclear plants that use once-through, recirculating, and pond cooling systems. In addition, water temperature violations reported to the Environmental Protection Agency are also considered, with 35 temperature violations noted from 2012-2015. In addition to providing some background information on incidents, this effort has also created an open access database on the Open Energy Information platform that contains information about water-related power plant issues that can be updated by users.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (EPSA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1338176
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-6A20-67084; TRN: US1701429
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
WATER
COOLING PONDS
WATER RESOURCES
COAL
COOLING SYSTEMS
AVAILABILITY
DATASETS
USA
VIOLATIONS
OPERATION
SHUTDOWN
OUTAGES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
thermoelectric cooling
climate change
data availability
curtailment
energy-water nexus