Creating a climate change risk assessment procedure - Hydropower plant case, Finland

The paper examines the risk assessment procedure for a Nordic hydropower production process in the light of climate change. The case study research focused on hydropower plants in the Kemijoki region of northern Finland. The paper describes the development of the risk assessment framework and presents the tools developed during this process: the general risk assessment procedure, guidelines for gathering the background information, the seasonal plan, risk identification model and risk/opportunity table, and a method for risk estimation and evaluation. A generic model of the risk assessment procedure will initially be sought, for application within the Nordic countries. The study is a part of the Nordic Energy Research funded Climate and Energy Systems (CES) project.