WATER POWER TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE
Reflecting on Water Power in 2023

January

WPTO announced the winners of the third phase of the Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize. This prize challenged innovators to employ modeling, mathematical optimization, data science, and machine learning to create new ways for hydropower systems to coordinate with existing grid scheduling practices and meet water management needs, such as water supply, environmental flow requirements, and flood management. The third phase increased the complexity of water management requirements, asked competitors to manage longer-term schedules, and added demand profiles that reflect significant solar integration. Team HydroFlex won the $30,000 first place prize.

Also in January, WPTO highlighted Nushagak Electric and Telephone Cooperative's technical assistance project focused on evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of a potential run-of-river hydroelectric project in Dillingham, Alaska. This work took place through DOE's Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project.

With the projects selected in January, the Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research program surpassed $10 million in technical support across more than 100 marine energy projects since it launched in May 2020.

February

WPTO released the report from its 2022 Peer Review. This report included feedback and recommendations from a team of independent experts who evaluated WPTO-funded projects across the Hydropower and Marine Energy programs as the office works to further the United States' clean energy goals.

March

WPTO selected a project for a $3.7 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This project aims to deepen relationships and trust between hydropower and river stakeholders to better incorporate community priorities in hydropower R&D activities. 

In the announcement of a new memorandum of understanding between WPTO and the Tennessee Valley Authority, WPTO Director Jennifer Garson stated, "Today's hydropower fleet has a crucial role to play in achieving the United States' clean energy goals, but strategies for operating those plants will have to evolve as more renewable energy resources come onto the grid." The agreement will enhance efforts to boost hydropower's ability to meet the electricity grid's changing needs.

WPTO launched the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP), which encourages competitors to investigate novel technologies for harnessing and converting the power of ocean waves into usable types of energy. The prize seeks to foster the development of distributed embedded energy converter technologies, which combine many small energy converters, often less than a few centimeters in size, into a single, larger ocean wave energy converter. This larger system could convert energy from a wide range of ocean locations and wave types.