There is great potential for hydropower in Georgia. Critical is to conduct accurate feasibility assessments for hydropower generation at the different potential sites of interest. This pre-feasibility assessment delivered daily flow estimates at several locations in Georgia. These flows were used as input into an economic analysis.
There is great potential for hydropower in Georgia, and this natural resource is likely to be increasingly utilised for power generation in the future. With the escalating demand for energy, government authorities are keen to harness renewable energy from the country’s many rivers. Often these projects aim at remote communities for which connecting to the national power grid is prohibitively expensive. Thus, local hydropower production is an attractive and sometimes viable option. Critical is to conduct accurate feasibility assessments for hydropower generation at the different potential sites of interest.
This pre-feasibility assessment delivered daily flow estimates at several locations in Georgia, including an estimate of the level of uncertainty. This uncertainty was bounded by studying the parameter uncertainty in the model. The final accuracy level of this assessment is around 10% for the high flows, and 30% for the low flows. These flows were used as input into an economic analysis. If the economic analysis results in a positive outcome, the following-up feasibility study will further improve on the hydrological modelling, possibly using the more advanced model SPHY instead of HEC-HMS given its good performance in high-mountain areas.
Related publications
2017 - FutureWater Report 175
Hydrological pre-feasibility assessment for hydropower facility in Northern Georgia
Khanal, S., J.E. Hunink