Electrify US Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure
Only a handful of America’s 80,000 dams are outfitted with power generation equipment. Electrifying the top 100 dams operated by the Army Corps of Engineers could generate electricity for over a million homes and create thousands of jobs.
Modernize old and inefficient equipment
The government spends three times less than the private sector on hydropower refurbishments, replacements, and upgrades. Modernizing the fleet will benefit taxpayers, improve system reliability, and create more clean electricity.
Background
Many hold outdated views on hydropower. Decades ago, hydropower meant large dams. Large dams meant taming rivers – and taming rivers was frowned upon because of their impacts on fish and other wildlife. Modern technology and responsible development can alleviate these concerns.
Today, lots of new hydropower can be developed without building another dam. Over 80,000 dams are already built in the United States, yet only 3% are outfitted with equipment to generate power. These “non-powered dams” were built for other purposes, such as irrigation and flood control. Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimates electrifying these existing dams would boost America’s hydropower capacity by 15%, enough to power millions of United States homes.1
West Virginia’s Tygart Dam, currently only used for flood control and irrigation,
is estimated to have 47 MW of power generation capacity.
Source: Wikimedia2
Modernize the government’s hydropower fleet
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) owns a quarter of all American hydropower capacity, making it the largest owner of hydropower in America.3 Plants owned by USACE make as much electricity as the entire state of Nevada.4 But the fleet is aging. Large portions of the fleet were built over 50 years ago and many still use the same parts installed over three decades ago.5
As upgrades have been deferred, the plants are breaking down more frequently. The fleet undergoes “unplanned outages” at twice the acceptable industry standard.6 According to a USACE analysis, neglecting to modernize 54 of its plants would forego $7 billion in electricity sales over the next 20 years.7 New equipment would simultaneously maximize flows to federal coffers and bolster U.S. clean energy generation.
Problems with the current USACE retrofit process
Despite generating billions each year for the United States taxpayer, only a fraction is reinvested into the fleet by the federal government. Compared to the private sector, the government spent three times less on refurbishments, replacements, and upgrades from 2005 to 2014.8
The bureaucratic and cumbersome federal funding process is a large part of the problem. USACE relies on Congressionally appropriated funds for non-routine maintenance, a process which can take over a decade.
USACE does not sell power directly to the public. The responsibility of selling power falls to intermediate federal organizations called Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs). These PMAs — such as the Western Area Power Administration and Southeastern Power Administration — are required by law to sell the power “at the lowest possible rates”.9 One federal report found one PMA industrial rate was 44% lower than the regional average in 2014. It even found these rates are often lower than the costs needed to maintain the plants.10
A law passed 15 years ago, the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, allows PMA customers to pay for upgrade projects upfront. Each PMA can finance improvements by levying a fee on its customers that already benefit from their below-market electricity rates. Despite the law, USACE reliability is still steadily declining. Research should be conducted on how Sec. 212 can be better leveraged or reformed to modernize the USACE fleet. Allowing PMAs to charge market rates would also open up new funding without affecting U.S. Treasury funds or the federal debt. This fix, however, may require legislative changes because PMAs are locked into long-term rates with local cooperatives, utilities, and industry.
A systematic process to quickly identify, analyze, and fund modernization projects has emerged in other agencies. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Bureau of Reclamation operate hydropower plants with much more reliable equipment because they do not rely on Congress for funding.11 Instead, they are allowed to use their electricity sales to finance their upgrades and maintenance.12
Private financing has also been proposed as a solution: there is “tremendous amount of interest to provide private capital improvements of USACE hydropower facilities”.13 USACE, however, lacks authority to engage in private-sector deals. Complete privatization of the Army Corps fleet is unlikely because the plants and reservoirs serve many non-power needs, such as flood control and water supply, which serve the public interest.
Learn the basics of Hydropower
Small Hydropower, Big Opportunity
