Hydropower: Expansion, Modularity, and Innovation

At POWERGEN 2025, Boualem Hadjerioua, the Director of Hydro Operations at Mesa Associates, discussed hydropower generation's future and technical details.

According to Hadjerioua, the industry is focused on integrating modularity with hydro turbines, particularly for high-head operations. The Department of Energy is funding much of this hydropower work, including the latest control and head-adaptability innovations from Mesa Associates. However, he said hydropower needs more support.

He identifies two main challenges regarding widespread hydropower buildout: environmental impact and cost of implementation: “Environmental impact includes fish passage, fish population, water quality, and water quantity. The cost of implementation, or construction cost, must have a good return on investment. We look at the cost of energy compared to construction costs over time.”