One of the environmental effects of hydropower operation that should be evaluated inlicensing decisions is the general benefit to air quality. Hydropower’s contribution to thereduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an increasingly important componentof these air quality benefits. The Oak Ridge Competitive Electricity Dispatch (ORCED)computer model is one method that can be used to quantify these benefits. ORCEDprovides a relatively simple method that is applicable and cost-effective and that hasbeen successfully applied in other GHG studies. ORCED can be used to calculate aregion-specific value of the carbon intensity factor (CIF, kg carbon/MWh) that would beassociated with likely replacement power (I.e., a regionally representative mix of coal,gas, and other energy sources). The project’s plant factor and operational mode (e.g,baseload versus peaking) can also be incorporated in the CIF calculation. The resultingparameter can then be multiplied by the energy output of the hydropower project that isbeing analyzed to estimate a CO2 emission value that is avoided by the project’soperation.
展开▼
