Colorado Energy Profile

Current Hydroelectric Potential

Hydroelectric potential in Colorado is reported as written in "U.S. Hydropower Resource Assessment for Colorado." The potential hydroelectric development reported here shows 665 MW representing 1,979,125 MWh with an associated Capacity Factor of 34%. These hydro projects would double the non pumped back hydroelectric power and energy resources Colorado. The Colorado assessment paper as well as the broader US paper are available through links below. Although the data points below are specific the calculations do not take many local issues into account, thus "regional and state totals must be considered judiciously; various local issues may skew hydropower potential totals."

Background Documents:

Plant name

County

FERC Number:

Owner:

Owner Class Code:

Stream:

Basin:

Name Plate Rating: kW

PESF:

PESF*KW: kW

Annual Energy Rating (MWh):

PESF Annual Energy Rating (MWh):

Unit Type:

Plant Type:

Project Status:

Dam Status:

Factors

Factor	Exists	Prob
Wild/Scenic Protection
Wild/Scenic Tributary or Upstream/Downstream
Wild/Scenic Location
Cultural Value
Fish Presence Value
Geologic Value
Historic Value
Other Value
Recreation Value
Scenic Value
Wild Value
Threatened/Endangered Fish
Wildlife
Federal Land Code 103
Federal Land Code 104
Federal Land Code 105
Federal Land Code 106
Federal Land Code 107
Federal Land Code 108
Federal Land Code 198

Data Terms and Definitions

Ave. Annual Energy (MWh) – The potential average annual generation of a project.
Text – Field type in Microsoft Access. May include letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols, as well as numbers that won’t be calculated, such as phone numbers or zip codes.
Class – HES field name, project owner class code.
County Name – HES field name, the county a project is located within.
CULTUR_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Cultural Value.
CULTUR_P – Resource database field name, stores probability value for Cultural Value, dependent on CULTUR_C and Dam Status for its value.
DAMSTATUS – The status of a project from a development view. A project will either be “W” (with power), “W/O” (without power), or “U” (undeveloped project). W and W/O are sites with some type of structure present.
Environmental Attribute – The attributes that affect the PESF for a project in conjunction with the dam status of a project. Environmental attributes include the Federal Land codes, Recreation Value, and Fish Value, among others. A complete explanation is contained in Section 9 – Project Environmental Suitability Factor Determination.
Environmental Factors – The fields for entering whether an environmental attribute is applicable to a project. Answer a “Y” if applicable, answer “N” or leave blank if the environmental attribute is not present at a project site. The probability is computed dependent on the environmental factor and dam status.
Federal Land Codes – Defined in Section 9 – Project Environmental Suitability Factor Determination.
FED103_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 103.
FED103_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 103, dependent on FED103_C and dam status for its value.
FED104_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 104.
FED104_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 104, dependent on FED104_C and dam status for its value.
FED105_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 105.
FED105_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 105, dependent on FED105_C and dam status for its value.
FED106_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 106.
FED106_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 106, dependent on FED106_C and dam status for its value.
FED107_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 107.
FED107_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 107, dependent on FED107_C and dam status for its value.
FED108_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 108.
FED108_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 108, dependent on FED108_C and dam status for its value.
FED198_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for Federal Land Code 198.
FED198_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value for Federal Land Code 198, dependent on FED198_C and dam status for its value.
FERC Number – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Number. FERC assigns a FERC number to any party owning a hydropower project or any party applying for a license to own and operate a hydropower project. The resource database contains projects that are not yet developed or licensed, but have been assigned a FERC number because a party is associated with securing a license for a project.
Field – Each item of information within a record (e.g., State, Plant Name).
FISH_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Fish Value.
FISH_P – Resource database field name, stores the probability value Fish Value, dependent on FISH_C and dam status for its value.
GEOL_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Geology Value.
GEOL_P – Resource database field name, stores the Geology probability value, dependent on GEOL_C and dam status for its value.
HES – Hydropower Evaluation Software. Uniform criteria and probability factor computer model to standardize the assessment process of potential hydropower in the U.S. Also manages the input, output, reporting, and data-storage of the resource database.
HISTORY_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute History Value.
HISTORY _P – Resource database field name, stores the History probability value, dependent on HISTORY_C and dam status for its value.
HPRA – Refers to the Hydropower Resource Assessment database.
(KW) – Kilowatt, one thousand watts.
Kilowatt-Hour (kWh) – The amount of electrical energy involved with a one kilowatt demand over a period of one hour. It is equivalent to 3,413 Btu of heat energy.
MW – Megawatt, one thousand kilowatts.
MWh – Megawatt-hours, one thousand kilowatt-hours.
Name Plate Rating – The maximum power output or load for which a turbine-generator, station, or system is rated. Used by HES to identify the additional capacity potential of a project.
OTHER_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Other Value.
OTHER _P – Resource database field name, stores the Other probability value, dependent on OTHER_C and dam status for its value.
Owner Name – The individual, group, or company owning a project, or applying for a license to develop a project.
PESF – The sum of all factors in the HES model that affect a project, or affect applying for a license to develop a project. The PESF is a de-rate factor for hydropower development.
PESF*KW – The Name Plate Rating (KW), multiplied by the PESF, the sum of which is the HES model’s potential hydropower for a project.
Plant Name – The name of the project.
Plant Type – The project type or type of operation.
Project Status – The project status code.
Project Suitability Factor – See PESF
REC_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Recreation Value.
REC _P – Resource database field name, stores the Recreation probability value, dependent on REC_C and dam status for its value.
Record(s) – All the data for a particular project. Resource Database – The name of the database to store the Hydropower Resource Assessment data. The name for the resource database is hes.mdb.
River Basin – The river drainage a project is located in.
SCENIC_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Scenic Value.
SCENIC _P – Resource database field name, stores the Scenic probability value, dependent on SCENIC_C and dam status for its value.
Stream – The stream the plant is located adjacent to.
Structure – The names of fields in a record, the number of characters in a field, and the type of information allowed in each field, defines the database.
T_E_F_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Threatened/Endangered Fish.
T_E_F_P – Resource database field name, stores the Threatened/Endangered Fish probability value, dependent on T_E_F_C and dam status for its value.
T_E_W_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Threatened/Endangered Wildlife.
T_E_W_P – Resource database field name, stores the Threatened/Endangered Wildlife probability value, dependent on T_E_W_C and dam status for its value.
Undeveloped – Dam Status value indicating a project absent of any type of hydropower development, or any other type of structure impeding the stream flow.
Unit Type – The type of unit (i.e., Conventional, Reversible, or Missing).
WILDLF_C – Resource database field name, stores Y, N, or blank value for environmental attribute Wildlife Value.
WILDLF_P – Resource database field name, stores the Wildlife probability value, dependent on WILDLF_C and dam status for its value.
With Power – Dam Status value, indicating a project that currently has some type of hydropower in place.
Without Power – Dam Status value, indicating a project that currently has some type of structure that is an impediment to stream flow. Most likely a dam built for flood control or irrigation purposes. The structure would be absent of any hydropower.