Agricultural vs. hydropower tradeoffs in the operation of the High Aswan Dam

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1982 · Water Resour. Res.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/WR018i006p01605· OSTI ID:5534301

Oven-Thompson, K ^[1]; Alercon, L; Marks, D H

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1. Metcalf and Eddy, Boston, MA

A tradeoff relationship is defined between hydropower and agriculture for the monthly operations of the High Aswan Dam under current water availability conditions. A stochastic dynamic programming model is employed which incorporates the physical constraints (e.g., reservoir storage limits, turbine capacity, allowable reservoir releases, etc.) of the High Aswan Dam system. Variations of monthly reservoir releases for agriculatural purposes are imposed on the system through this model, and consequent impacts on hydropower production at the high dam are studied. The results show that once operating rules are optimized for current agricultural demands an 11-20% increase in firm monthly hydropower production can be gained when summer irrigation allocations are reduced by 25%. A simple benefit/cost analysis concludes that potential benefits obtained by gains in firm monthly hydropower are nearly equal to potential losses in the agricultural sector when summer allocations are reduced by 5-10%. Operation questions raised by the introduction of a new emergency flood control spillway at Toshka are addressed. Recommendations are made for the operating guidelines of the high dam releases in light of these results.

• OSTI ID: 5534301
• Journal Information: Water Resour. Res.; (United States), Vol. 18:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
13 HYDRO ENERGY
AGRICULTURE
ENERGY DEMAND
EGYPTIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
DAMS
HYDROELECTRIC POWER
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
IRRIGATION
NILE RIVER
OPTIMIZATION
PRODUCTIVITY
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
AFRICA
DEMAND
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ELECTRIC POWER
ENERGY SOURCES
INDUSTRY
POWER
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RIVERS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
VARIATIONS
530200* - Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies- Assessment of Energy Technologies- (-1989)
130500 - Hydro Energy- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
130600 - Hydro Energy- Environmental Aspects