Bugs Pay for Days of Steady Reservoir Releases to Reduce Costs to Hydropower Customers and Sustain Funds to Maintain Infrastructure

Steady low reservoir releases allow downstream aquatic invertebrates (bugs) to lay and hatch eggs and increase production. These releases also reduce revenue from hydropeaking operations, increase costs to hydropower customers, reduce funds to maintain project infrastructure, repay project loans, and exacerbate hydropower production-ecosystem conflicts. This paper has the purpose to (1) quantify tradeoffs between the number of days of bug flows and hydropower revenue, (2) identify ways to reduce costs to hydropower customers, and (3) inform the design of a financial instrument to increase bug production, compensate hydropower customers for costs, and reduce conflict. A linear program identified tradeoffs between hydropower revenue and number of days of steady low releases per month for different contract and market energy prices and monthly release volumes across March to October months when bugs are most productive. We found that bug flows on 8 weekend days per summer month in 2018 from Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona reduced hydropower revenue by $300,000 (June) to $600,000 (August). Shifting bug flow days to Spring/Fall months reduced costs. To reduce conflict, we suggest to create a new financial instrument funded by the Federal Treasury for ~$300,000 to $600,000 per month. The instrument can give ecosystem managers more flexibility to choose days for steady low releases that advantage bugs and pay hydropower producers for costs. Next steps are to engage Federal agencies on benefits and limitations of the proposed instrument and expand to steady high releases that mobilize sediment, build sandbars, and disadvantage non-native, invasive fish populations.

This resource contains the following items:

+ README.md - Markdown file with documentation for this resource including directions to reproduce results in the manuscript
+ GCD_BugFlowExperiment-main - Folder with sub-folders that contain the data, models, and code to reproduce figures, tables, and results in the manuscript
+ RindRosenberg-BugsPayForDaysOfSteadyReservoirReleases.docx -- Word document with manuscript for work.
+ Rosenberg-BugsPayForSteadyFlows-AprilAMP.pptx - Power point presentation with overview of work presented at April 12/13, 2023 meeting of the Technical Work Group (TWG) of Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCD-AMP).
+ KeyFeedbackFromTechnicalWorkGroup-April12-2023.docx - Key feedback from presentation to GCD-AMP Technical Work Group on April 12, 2023.

稳定低水位的蓄水释放允许下游水生无脊椎动物（昆虫）产卵和孵化，从而增加产量。此类释放亦降低了水力发电的收益，增加了水力发电客户的成本，减少了维护项目基础设施、偿还项目贷款的资金，并加剧了水力发电生产与生态系统之间的冲突。本研究旨在（1）量化昆虫流量天数与水力发电收益之间的权衡，（2）确定降低水力发电客户成本的方法，以及（3）为设计一项金融工具提供信息，以增加昆虫产量，补偿水力发电客户的成本，并减少冲突。一项线性规划识别了在不同合同和市场能源价格以及3月至10月（昆虫生产力最高的月份）每月稳定低释放天数与水力发电收益之间的权衡。我们发现，2018年夏季每个月的8个周末从亚利桑那州的格兰德峡谷大坝释放的昆虫流量，将6月份的水力发电收益减少了30万美元，至8月份的60万美元。将昆虫流量天数转移到春季/秋季月份可以降低成本。为了减少冲突，我们建议创建一项由联邦国库资助、每月约30万至60万美元的新金融工具。该工具可以赋予生态系统管理者更多灵活性，以选择有利于昆虫的稳定低释放日，并支付水力发电生产商的成本。下一步是参与联邦机构，讨论所提工具的益处和局限性，并将范围扩大到稳定高释放，以动员沉积物，建造沙洲，并不利非本地、入侵性鱼类种群。本资源包含以下内容：

+ README.md - 包含本资源文档的Markdown文件，包括在论文中重现结果的说明
+ GCD_BugFlowExperiment-main - 包含数据、模型和代码的文件夹，用于重现论文中的图、表和结果
+ RindRosenberg-BugsPayForDaysOfSteadyReservoirReleases.docx -- 包含论文工作的Word文档
+ Rosenberg-BugsPayForSteadyFlows-AprilAMP.pptx - 包含4月12/13, 2023日格兰德峡谷大坝适应性管理计划（GCD-AMP）技术工作组（TWG）会议工作概述的PowerPoint演示文稿
+ KeyFeedbackFromTechnicalWorkGroup-April12-2023.docx - 2023年4月12日GCD-AMP技术工作组会议对演示文稿的关键反馈。