TITLE:
Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on the Hydroelectric Power Plant of Kandadji, Niger
AUTHORS:
Inoussa Abdou Saley, Amadou Lawali Djibo, Boubacar Abdou Boko, Harouna Sani Dan Nomao, Mahamane Rabilou Iro Ousmane, Abdoul Aziz Saidou Chaibou
KEYWORDS:
Kandadji, CWatM, Hydro-Climatic, Hydroelectric Power Plant, Niger River
JOURNAL NAME:
Energy and Power Engineering,
Vol.18 No.10,
October
16,
2026
ABSTRACT: Debates regarding the climate change impacts on human societies and natural ecosystems remain a central concern for scientists and policymakers worldwide. Our study aims to contribute to this important research area by examining how climate change may affect the hydrological regime and energy production of the Kandadji hydroelectric power plant. We used in-situ observational data, climate model simulations and the outputs from the Community Water Model (CWatM), a hydrological model driven by three climate models. Quantile-quantile mapping was applied to the simulated discharge to adjust systematic biases in the hydrological model outputs. Two scenarios from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs; RCP2.6& RCP8.5) and two scenarios form the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP126 and SSP370) were considered. Our results show that CWatM provides limited performance in representing both the seasonal cycle and inter-annual variability of the river discharge. Upward trends in the observed hydro-climatic parameters (total rain, rainy days, heavy rainfall events, maximum, minimum and mean discharges) were found meaning that we are facing an intensification of the observed hydrological cycle. These trends seem likely to continue over the future periods for all the scenarios. While changes in mean annual hydroelectricity generation potential are projected to be minor (