Price of Water

Abstract

There are watercourses on the globe which as yet do not deliver up their energy to the needs of the people. How much energy their waters bear, is it worth to take away this energy? Those and alike questions must be (and they are) answered before start to build hydro power station. Similar problems must be solved to control hydro power plants in most gainful way which is known as hydrothermal coordination. The notion of price of water can be met lately in technical literature as one of numerical indices of these issues. The gross price of water and net price of water are considered in this paper. Gross price of 1 t water is the price of electric energy obtained by conversion of potential energy of 1 t of water, lifted to a height of power station water head. Net price of water is the difference between gross price and total expenses determined by hydro power station building and its exploitation costs in a year related to 1 m3 of water. If net price of water is positive, it is worth building power station. The greater net price is, the more urgent is the building. Net price of water grows with water head but it continues only to some height of the dam because further increase of head sharply increases capital outlay and other exploitation expenses. To maximize net price of water, optimization of net price function can be done. Net price of water diminishes when some amount of water is diverted for other needs. When amount of diverted water is out of discussion, no controversy can emerge. However when by diverted water some goods with some monetary worth can be obtained, the task must be solved how much water can be diverted so that the water of watercourse be used to the maximum benefit. The environmental issues must be taken into account as well.