Optimizing cost performance using hydropower benchmarking

European hydropower operators are facing major challenges in today’s business environment. Declining revenues because of decreasing market prices and increasing regulatory obligations require a greater focus on performance improvements. A customized approach, accounting for structural and technical differences to take into consideration hydropower-specific cost drivers, has been developed to reveal indicative performance differences regarding operation and maintenance costs. The underlying methodology neutralizes those cost drivers (key influencing parameters, KIPs) that create O&M cost differences among plants but cannot be controlled or influenced by the management and operational staff. This approach and its application are described in this paper.