Keeping current with hydropower
Identify asset risks, focus capital where it can have the greatest impact and use a practical framework to prioritize investments and strengthen business cases. The report considers asset condition alongside changing operational, climate and regulatory requirements to support long-term performance.
See risk across the full asset lifecycle
Hydropower investment decisions are shaped by more than asset age. This report examines the connected risks influencing long-term performance, including hidden asset vulnerabilities, climate change, regulatory requirements and project delivery constraints.
Our report provides a practical roadmap to help you assess risk and prioritize investments. Explore how to sequence projects, build stronger business cases and reassess priorities as conditions change.
What’s inside the report?
Explore the connected risks shaping hydropower investment decisions and practical considerations for responding.
Understanding today’s hydropower risk landscape
Understand the forces reshaping hydropower risk and why traditional approaches to risk management are becoming less effective. Through practical examples, this section shows how climate, regulatory, operational and asset-related challenges interact to influence reliability and resilience.
Identifying hidden risks in aging assets
Not all aging assets present the same level of risk. This section examines how condition, consequence and performance data can help identify where further investigation is needed and where limited capital can have the greatest impact.
Building the business case for modernization
Hydropower owners face difficult decisions about where to invest limited capital and when to act. This section explores how risk, asset condition and operational value can be used to prioritize modernization projects and build a stronger case for investment.
Climate resilience as a capital planning driver
Climate change is altering the conditions that many hydropower assets were designed to operate in. This section examines how changing climate exposure can affect asset performance and reliability, and how organizations can use risk-based planning to identify priorities and strengthen resilience.
Modernized delivery models for a resource-constrained market
Modernization programs place growing demands on internal teams that are already balancing operational, regulatory and asset management responsibilities. This section explores how hydropower owners can strengthen delivery capacity through strategic partnerships and delivery models that align with project needs and organizational priorities.
Integrating environmental, social and Indigenous considerations
Project decisions can affect communities, Indigenous rights, cultural values and the environment in interconnected ways. This section explores how early integration of environmental, social and Indigenous considerations into project planning can strengthen relationships, support more informed decision-making and reduce approval and delivery risks.
Pumped hydro’s growing role in grid flexibility
Pumped hydro is emerging as a key tool for balancing supply and demand in evolving electricity markets. This section examines where pumped hydro fits within broader generation and storage portfolios, and what organizations should consider when evaluating new opportunities.
Roadmap: Prioritizing the next five years
As risk profiles evolve, organizations need a clear process for deciding where to invest and when to act. This section provides a practical framework for assessing risk, prioritizing investments, sequencing projects, building stronger business cases and adapting plans as new information emerges.
Perspectives from our hydropower specialists
Hydropower's hidden risks?
Prioritize capital based on exposure, not asset age or value.
Climate and hydropower
Understand where climate change could affect future risk.
Four modernization issues
Implications from aging infrastructure to dam safety.
Pumped hydro and the grid
Pumped hydro's role in the wider generation and storage portfolio.
Move your hydropower priorities forward
We bring together advisory, engineering, environmental and asset management capabilities to help you understand risk and set clearer investment priorities.
Our hydropower experience draws on projects and lessons learned across Canada, the United States and Australia, bringing perspectives shaped by diverse operating environments and asset challenges.