Sustainable hydro energy use consequently on cost management

Abstract

Development of environmental awareness and ever rising need for taking environmental conditions back to the zero stage, the way they were before the construction was built, open the question of hydropower facilities removal from the a riverbed after a given exploitation period. Compromised or endangered stability of a construction can also result in need for premature removal of the facility, before the planned exploitation period is over. The aim of this paper is to present the complexity of one hydro power plant removal project towards sustainability and holistic management of environmental quality. The total cost of structure removal is calculated and compared with the total cost of its construction. There is also a discussion on question of who should bear the expenses of the removal project and recommended answer to a decision maker from a sustainable development point of view. Simulation of removal has been done on example of gravity dam and hydropower plant Paunci on the Drina River in Serbia.