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Trial 3 consisted of using average historic power produced to <br />drive Reservoir operations. The result of this operation was to <br />drive the Reservoir to the minimum and it never recovered. This <br />indicated that the power plant efficiency was set to low or the <br />power operations needed additional refinement. <br />Trial 4 consisted of using a monthly release of 100,000 acre-feet <br />per month to drive Reservoir operations. This also resulted in <br />the Reservoir being drawn to minimum pool and never recovering. <br />At this point no progress was evident, and Randy Peterson of the <br />Bureau was contacted for consultation. Randy reviewed the <br />historical operation of Flaming Gorge and provided the Service a <br />table of historic Reservoir elevations. <br />Trial 5 consisted of converting the historic elevations to a <br />target reservoir contents table (table T702) and using it as a <br />target for Reservoir operations. This failed completely because <br />HYDROSS 3.0 does not place much priority on meeting targets. The <br />primary importance of HYDROSS 3.0 is saving the maximum possible <br />water that is not associated with a demand. <br />To overcome this problem, a meeting was held with the author of <br />HYDROSS 3.0, Allan Mac Kichan, to discuss this and other problems <br />which have been identified in test trials. Several possible <br />solutions to the problem were identified, the most successful was <br />to set target content to the absolute Reservoir maximum content. <br />This solution also reduces the flexibility of the model and the <br />Service suggested that the model be revised to give more priority <br />to meeting content or elevation targets. <br />Trial 6 consisted of setting the maximum content equal to the <br />target content and reoperating the model. The result was that the <br />target was met, and water in excess of the target content was <br />released the following month or spilled. With this modification, <br />a mechanism to drive a realistic operation was found, but the <br />ability to use the model to do "what if" analysis was not <br />retained. <br />Again, we turned to Randy Peterson of the Bureau to provide some <br />flexible criteria which would provide a reasonable Reservoir <br />operation. Randy again reviewed the historic operations of <br />Flaming Gorge Reservoir and developed a set of monthly content <br />targets which he felt would apply in average hydrological years. <br />14