Increase of river base flow by hydropower gate operation for mitigation of CSO impacts - potential and limitations

In this paper the measure of increased river base flow is developed and evaluated. Aim is the temporal increase of flow in manmade low flow stretches for sufficient dilution of downstream acute pollution introduced by combined sewer overflows (CSOs). The increase of flow is done by operating upstream located retaining structures such as hydropower intakes. For implementation both energy producers and municipalities are required to cooperate. Thus the measure fits into a core aim of the Water Framework Directive of having basin wide approaches for improvements. Technically the focus of the measure is clearly on the mitigation of acute pollution, not addressing delayed or accumulate pollutants. The framework and implications are discussed for having an appropriate real time control (RTC) concept based on model based predictive control (MBPC). A specially development algorithm for the operation is presented and subsequently tested off-line with a semi-virtual catchment. The boundary conditions of the catchment are varied with regard to the connected catchment size, the river connected and the pollutant concentration originating from the catchment. Based on these scenarios and a review on uncertainties in rain forecasts, limits for the measure are derived. Costs for the measure were estimated as equivalent cost due to losses in energy production. It is shown that not only the costs for annual spilled water are to be considered but as well peak flows generated in the river system. The increase of CSO volume as an alternative measure was not found to be a suitable measure, leading to unrealistic high volumes and consequently to exorbitant costs.