Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Complex Managed Hydrosystems: An Application to the Columbia River Basin

The Columbia River Basin, one of the world′s most complex developed hydropower systems, is also the spawning area for over 100 stocks of salmon, 3 of which have recently been listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Electricity ratepayers in the basin have spent over a billion dollars since 1980 to increase salmon populations. This paper describes simulation and optimization models developed to analyze the cost-effectiveness of salmon recovery measures, as required by the 1980 Northwest Power Planning Act. The results suggest that the combination of optimization and simulation is useful for analyzing the system-wide cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures.