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HYDRO 2007 – Granada, 17 October 2007

Sara Gollessi e Giulia ValerioAPER – Associazione Produttori di Energia da Fonti Rinnovabili

Implementation of the WFD in Italy and experimental studies

on reserved flow

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HYDROPOWER

global perspective: ecological advantages

local perspective: environmental impacts

adoption of mitigation measures

positive contributionto climate changes

Background ….

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TARGET: “good status” for all EU waters within 2015

TOOLS: economic analysis

Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC

costs/benefits

efficiency

PROBLEMS: potential conflicts and contradictions with DIR 2001/77/EC DIR 2001/77/EC targets for Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources

which could be the compromisecompromise ??

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Reserved Flow & experimental approach

Starting from the ’90ies a “reserved flow” was introduced to mitigate the impact on the diverted reaches, but…

many general formulas, difficult to apply for solving a typical site-specific problem

use of theoretical or semi-empirical approaches

no clear definition of the goals shared by the stakeholders

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Reserved Flow & experimental approach

the purpose of the experimental approach is to define an optimal value for this parameter, which can be efficient for the site-specific conditions

The WFD and the new environmental legislation on climate change introduced a new framework, where the costs must be related to the expected benefits

it is necessary to define the best compromise between global environmental protection and economic development on one hand, and local impact on the water bodies on the other hand

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SHERPA projectAims at promoting a comprehensive territorial planning approach at the level of water bodies:

investigating environmental performance of SHP

spreading best practices

experimenting a participatory approach

DELIVERABLES:

Assessment of productivity in relation with WFD and RES-e targets

Report on technical and operational procedures to better integrate Small hydroplants in the environment

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Legislative Decree n. 152/99: one year before the WFD!

January 2006: European Court condemn Italy for failure to transpose the WFD

Legislative Decree n. 152/06

Regional Governments have to set quality targets for each

water body and identify measures to achieve them, by

adopting a Water Protection Plan.

Implementation of the WFD in Italy

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Experimental studies on RF in ItalyMany ongoing studies …

similar principles, different approaches!

3 different experiences within the same river basinPo River: 650 Km, 71.057 km2, 6 Regions !

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The experience of Valle d’Aosta Region

PARTECIPANTS: Region, hydropower producers, research institutes

DURATION: each experimental campaign should last 5 years

COSTS : each hydropower producer will support its costs (≈ 6.000 euro/year), concession fees reduced by 50%.

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The experience of Valle d’Aosta Region

RESULTS: the experimental campaigns haven’t started yet, because the participants are still discussing about the parameters to be measured and about the administrative and/or research institutions which will carry out these measurements !

TARGET: definition of a relation, specific for each water diversion, between the flow rate and the value of a series of parameters. The definition of the reserved flow value will finally be supported by a multicriteriaanalysis, which will consider all the interests involved.

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The experience of Piemonte Region –Toce River

PARTECIPANTS: Region, Province, Environmental Protection Agency, ENEL, APERAPER and WWF Italy as observers

COSTS: the Region will support the cost of the study (physical measurements and laboratory analysis) and ENEL only the cost of the loss of productivity

DURATION: 6 years, starting from 2006

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The experience of Piemonte Region –Toce River

TARGET: a different percentage of the hydrological component of the RF will be released for 2 years each value and a technical commission will evaluate the actual effects on the ecosystem.

RESULTS: started in June 2006; on the basis of the first measurements the commission proposed to introduce a seasonal modulation of the releases.

Since the experience is going on well, participants are working to define a new experimentation protocol on a wider area: it will interest 6 water bodies and 2 artificial basins.

☺☺

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The experience of Lombardia Region –Serio River

PARTECIPANTS: Lombardia Region, 2 Provinces, hydropower producers, farmer unions, manufacturers, fishery associations, environmental associations, natural parks

DURATION: only two experimental campaigns of 4 weeks each (April – May 2007/ Sept-Oct 2007)

COSTS: will be shared by the regional and provincial administrations and all the participants proportionally to their concession fee

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The experience of Lombardia Region –Serio River

TARGET: to analyse the effects of different values of release on the quality and quantity of water and on the hydrological continuity. APER is collecting information about the actual loss of productivity.

RESULTS: the first experimental campaign (April – May 2007) was quite unsatisfactory: small amount of measurements really significant (rainfalls, mistakes).

Main interesting result: upstream delimitation of the infiltration zone, since starting from this point and going downstream any increase in the releases doesn’t have significant effects on the flow rate.

☺☺

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ConclusionsVAL D’AOSTA:

☺☺ completely voluntary approachcompletely voluntary approach☺☺ Presence of a compensation measure

PIEMONTE – TOCE: limited in space and only one usereasier to manage, better definition

LOMBARDIA – SERIO: ☺☺ formal approach was very interesting and

quite new (different users, basin scale)

users not involved in the definition of the activityshort duration of the 2 experimental campaigns

opportunity, not burden

improving experience

to be improved !

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Conclusions

COSTSCOSTS = measurement surveys + loss of productivity

EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHEXPERIMENTAL APPROACH = to find out a good and efficient definition of reserved flow

a compensation measure scheme is necessary (reduction of the water concession fee or a different sort of monetary or fiscal benefit)

it is necessary to assess the loss of productivity for hydropower plants due to its application and the impact on the achievement of the RESe targets

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Thanks !

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APER ASSOCIAZIONE PRODUTTORI ENERGIA

DA FONTI RINNOVABILI

Piazza Luigi di Savoia, 24 -20124 MILANO

Tel +39 02 7631 9199 - Fax +39 02 7639 7608

info@aper.it - www.aper.it