Reforming for resilience: delivering ‘multipurpose hydropower’ under water and energy risks

Multipurpose hydropower reservoirs are regularly framed as water security and climate change solutions. Although multipurpose projects can and do deliver a range of water services, ‘win-win’ outcomes are not guaranteed. Emerging water and energy risks are altering the net benefits from operating reservoirs to deliver hydropower generation, water supply, flood control, or other purposes. This paper shows that new hydropower governance approaches are needed to efficiently and fairly reallocate water under risks. We demonstrate that dynamic water reallocation is fundamental to the resilience of multipurpose reservoir systems and examine three potential reforms: periodic relicensing, water tariffs, and hydropower sustainability performance bonds.