The HydroWIRES Initiative builds on and integrates a significant body of previous work within WPTO. The 2016 Hydropower Vision Report provided a baseline for hydropower’s technical performance and illustrated challenges and opportunities to expand the hydropower fleet. This report also highlighted research gaps in understanding the past, present, and future value of hydropower.

Such questions motivated two flagship projects in what later became the foundational efforts for the HydroWIRES initiative.

The forthcoming Hydropower Value Study describes the current operational landscape of the hydropower fleet, including how flexibility has been valued in the past and what value drivers could be most important in future scenarios.

The congressionally directed PSH techno-economic assessment will result in a valuation guidance tool with a comprehensive, rigorous valuation methodology for the grid services that PSH can provide. This methodology will then be applied to two proposed PSH sites competitively selected through a 2017 Notice of Opportunity for Technical Assistance: the Banner Mountain site in Wyoming and the Goldendale site on the Oregon and Washington border.