Transforming a century-old lock into a modern energy asset, the Heidelberg Hydroelectric Project showcases how innovation and preservation can work together. By maximizing efficiency within existing infrastructure, the project delivers increased power generation with minimal environmental impact—demonstrating a smarter path forward for sustainable hydropower.
The article highlights Emergent™, Kleinschmidt’s agent-based modeling framework that simulates how individual fish respond to hydraulic conditions, environmental cues, and group behavior as they move through rivers and fish passage systems. By representing fish as active decision-makers rather than passive particles, the approach provides deeper insight into passage performance and biological outcomes.
The feature highlights how hydropower supports resilient infrastructure by providing reliable renewable energy while contributing to water management, grid stability, and long-term system reliability. The article also underscores the growing importance of modernizing existing hydropower assets to meet today’s safety, environmental, and operational challenges.
We’re proud to share that Robert Schomp, one of our water resources engineers, was recently featured on Chat with Change Makers, a student-led series produced by DiscoverE that highlights careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are reshaping the future of nuclear power—offering lower costs, faster deployment, and scalable, carbon-free energy. But success starts with one critical element: a compliant, environmentally sound cooling-water strategy.
Kleinschmidt’s rope access program enables engineers and technicians to safely reach the most challenging areas of dams and water infrastructure—where traditional access methods simply aren’t practical. Certified through SPRAT and IRATA, our rope access professionals perform detailed inspections, measurements, and condition assessments on penstocks, spillways, gates, and surge towers, all while minimizing disruption to operations
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to finalize the listing of the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by early 2026. This change could introduce new regulatory requirements for vegetation management (via restrictions added to pesticide labels), maintenance, and construction activities—especially in areas like grasslands, meadows, utility corridors, and roadsides that support milkweed and nectar-producing plants.
As infrastructure ages and climate events grow more extreme, dam safety demands more than a one-size-fits-all approach. At Kleinschmidt, we're leading the shift to probabilistic breach modeling—an approach that simulates thousands of failure scenarios, not just one. This method helped East Bay Municipal Utility District uncover hidden vulnerabilities at Camanche Reservoir that traditional models missed, offering a more complete picture of risk.
This paper explores the dynamic intersection of fish biology and engineering at hydroelectric facilities across North America. With over 1,000 fish species in our waters and thousands of unique hydroelectric projects, effective fish passage solutions are essential for protecting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem balance. Kleinschmidt’s team outlines upstream and downstream passage technologies from ladders and...
Access to water is essential to all life, but it is equally essential for utilitarian purposes such as power generation, agriculture, manufacturing, and construction. Although its global supply was once considered limitless, today’s demands for water have far exceeded its availability in many settings, especially in densely populated geographic regions, which are often located in...