Skip to main content
Dryad

Data for: Water system simulation modeling with hydropower optimization and environmental flows: An example with Pywr

Data files

Jul 25, 2022 version files 34.34 MB

Abstract

This dataset was used in the CenSierraPywr model created for the project "Optimizing Hydropower Operations While Sustaining Ecosystem Functions in a Changing Climate", for the California Energy Commission. Specifically, this data is to support reproducibility of the article describing the basic methods (Rheinheimer et al., in review). The model was built in Pywr, an open-source, linear programming-based Python package for modeling basin-scale water systems in the Central Sierra Nevada, California. Here, we focus on the Stanislaus and Upper San Joaquin River basins as they have high elevation hydropower typically operated to maximize revenue. CenSierraPywr consists of daily water allocations that include both hydroeconomic drivers for hydropower and more advanced environmental flows. Piecewise linear electricity prices from simulated hourly price data are used to drive discretionary hydropower, while environmental flows include the addition of ramping rates. Hydrological inputs include runoff data at the sub-basin level, based on the historical (1950 to 2011) daily gridded (1/16 degree) runoff data generated by the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model developed by Livneh et al. (2013), forced with observed meteorological data and bias-corrected using local gauge data. All data inputs for reproducibility of CenSierraPywr for the Stanislaus and Upper San Joaquin Rivers are included, including original and preprocessed electricity and hydrological data and management-related data specific to certain hydropower projects or facilities.