The Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has launched the Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize to encourage the development of new solutions that can help advance hydropower’s contribution to the grid.
Donor Name: Water Power Technologies Office
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Prize
Deadline: 08/17/2023
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Details:
The Hydropower Operations Optimization (H2Os) Prize is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office as part of the Hydropower and Water Innovation for a Resilient Electricity System (HydroWIRES) Initiative.
The prize encourages innovators to tackle the challenge of optimizing the value of hydropower in the grid while considering realistic water management requirements.
This prize supports WPTO’s Hydropower and Water Innovation for a Resilient Energy System (HydroWIRES) Initiative by focusing on hydropower’s complementary role as an integrator of variable renewables, like wind and solar, to best leverage hydropower’s benefits for planning daily grid operations. The H2Os Prize incentivizes competitors to develop solutions to help hydropower systems coordinate with existing grid scheduling practices to fully realize hydropower’s benefits and capabilities.
This prize is specifically designed to incentivize innovative approaches to optimize hydropower operations in a realistic simulated scenario with respect to physical and environmental constraints of the water system, revenue, emissions, and other goals. Additionally, the fourth phase of the prize encourages flexible solutions with relatively fast runtimes capable of managing unforeseen operational challenges encountered in real river management systems. The goal of this phase is to bridge the gap between the advanced technological approaches developed and presented in the first three phases of the competition and the current and future needs of industry in applying new technologies to improve hydropower scheduling. Competitor submissions will be scored against three key metrics that will feed into a final score:
- Hydropower Management Performance
- Hydropower scheduling solutions that respect the water system’s physical and operational constraints.
- Hydropower Generation Benefits
- Economic and environmental benefits resulting from hydropower generation based on feasible hydropower output and electricity market energy prices.
- Novel, Scalable, and Broadly Applicable Hydropower
- Unique, innovative, and flexible solutions that apply to a variety of facilities within a range of modeling and institutional workflows.
H2Os Prize Awards
- Prize pool up to $85,000
- One grand prize of $25,000 in cash and prizes
- Second place $20,000
- Third place $15,000
- Fourth place $10,000
- $5,000 prizes for up to three other winners
Eligibility Criteria
The competition is open to private entities (for-profits and nonprofits); non-federal government entities such as states, counties, tribes, and municipalities; academic institutions; and individuals, subject to the following requirements:
- Individuals can compete alone or as a group. A representative of a private entity can also register the entity to compete by itself or as the lead organization of a group of entities. Teams can also be composed of a mix of individuals and entities or organizations.
- An individual prize competitor (who is not competing as a member of a group) must be a United States citizen or a legal permanent resident.
- A group of individuals competing as one team may win, provided the team captain and account holder for the team submission is a United States citizen or a legal permanent resident.
- Individuals competing as part of a team may participate if they are legally allowed to work in the United States.
- Private entities must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States with majority domestic ownership and control. If an entity seeking to compete does not have majority domestic ownership and control, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy may consider issuing a waiver of that eligibility requirement where the entity otherwise meets the eligibility requirements; the entity is incorporated in and maintains a primary place of business in the United States; and the entity submits a compelling justification. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy may require additional information before making a determination on the waiver request.
- Academic institutions must be based in the United States.
- Only the first 10 eligible registrants will be accepted to participate at the in-person competition. Competitors must have previously registered for any one of the first three phases to be eligible and meet all eligibility requirements outlined. Upon registration, teams must enter their Topcoder handle to prove their prior registration.
For more information, visit WPTO.
