Hydroelectric Potential of the City of Nanaimo BC Water Supply

The mountain water supply of the City of Nanaimo (population 78,000) in British Columbia, Canada, provides the potential for generating hydroelectric energy. The hydro plants would be connected directly to the two supply pipelines — head available for power therefore will vary inversely with water consumption. The hydraulic analysis made effective use of the capability of the Shamir and Howard network analysis program SDP to determine the hydro energy by explicitly solving for unknown conductance, and combinations of head and consumption at the same node. Optimization of the installed capacity also considered opportunities for power sales, variability in present and future water consumption, hydrology of the ungauged river sites, instream flow requirements to protect aquatic habitat, and hydroelectric licensing requirements.