Professional Documents
Culture Documents
y p
p
y
Hydropower
plants exhibit a g
great deal of variety.
Almost every hydropower project has some special features uncommon with
other projects of the same type.
Thus,
Th
h d
hydropower
plants
l t could
ld be
b classified
l
ifi d on the
th basis
b i of:
f
developments
requires
information
under
all
such
categories.
An important point which should be borne in mind is that
i.
i Conventional Hydro-plants
Use normally available hydraulic energy of the flowing water of the rivers.
e.g. Run-of river plant, diversion plant, storage plant
selectively.
Normally used with areas with a shortage of water.
water
It generates energy for peak load, and at off-peak periods water is
increases the load factor of other systems and also provides additional
capacity
it to
t meett the
th peakk load.
l d
water) in the natural depression which provides operating head for the
plant
Water level in the depression is controlled by natural evaporation
process
interconnected into g
grids ((ICS))
Thus in a grid system, a power station may be distinguished as a
base load p
plant or p
peak load p
plant.
Hydropower plants are best suited as peak load plants, because
hydropower
y p
p
plants can start relatively
yq
quickly
y and can thus accept
p
load quickly
over a year.
Construction
C
i
off a dam
d
usually
ll implies
i li
a much
h more
best as it can.
In such cases, only a mini-reservoir or a pondage which
dams;
whereas
h
plants
l
i plain
in
l i areas may have
h
only
l weirs
i for
f the
h
main structure.
For plants situated far in the interior and away from load
Classification of hydropower plants on the basis of plant capacity changes with time as technology
improves.
According to Mosonyi:
i) Midget plant
up to 100 KW
< 1 MW
< 10 MW
> 10 MW
< 5 MW
5 to 100 MW
101 to 1,000 MW
above 1,000 MW
< 15m
15-50m
50-250m
> 250m
generate power.
It also acts as a controlled spilling device
The power house is located along the main course of the river;
Preferred in perennial rivers with moderate to high discharge, flat
unit.
The appurtenances of the entrance structure are the sill, fine rack or
screen and gate;
Turbine
T bi chamber
h b off scrollll case with
ith turbine;
t bi
Concrete or steel draft tube;
Power
P
h
house
b ildi
building
ii.
iii.
iv.
layouts.
Power house provided along one bank adjacent to weir and separated
affects
ff
the
h turbine
bi efficiency.
ffi i
The eddies and vortices developed in the bay may also move the bed
Length of the weir, and also the location of the piers, thus, influences the hydraulic conditions.
single power house, two power houses at the two banks are provided.
the straight short cut of a bend or in bends where the bed load
is not heavy.
The main advantage of this type of layout is the existence of
more uniform current in all operating conditions compared to
block power stations.
A variation of this type of power house is the island-type
arrangement in which a block type of power station is located
centrally and on both sides of it are the portions of the weir.
The twin power station presents some difficulties which
outnumber the advantages of it.
Higher investment cost,
cost
higher maintenance and supervision costs and
the practical difficulty of carrying the cables with high voltage are
sets.
A pier head power station is suitable when there is no possibility of
widening the river bed and the river stretch is straight or slightly
curved.
This is one of the advantages of this layout where the valley is
comparatively narrow.
This layout gives the most uniform current distribution in all flow
conditions.
diti
S b
ibl power station:
t ti
Submersible
In this type of plants, the machine hall is provided under
machine hall.
This
Thi type
t
off layout
l
t is
i selected
l t d for
f low
l
h d (6 15 m)) in
heads
i
spillway location. If the spillway is in the central portion of the dam, then
the power house may be located on one of the banks or as twin power
house, one on each bank.
HW
TW
Occasionally
Occasionally,
the
power
house
is
situated
not
firm capacity
p
y of the p
plant substantially,
y, and depending
p
g on
the annual run-off and power requirements, the plant may
be used as a base load and/or peak-load
peak load installation.
installation
3 Diversion
Di
i n canal
n l pl
nt
3.
plants
The distinguishing feature is the presence of power
canal that diverts the water away from the main stream
channel;
The power house is provided at suitable location along
the stretch of the canal;
The water often flowing through the turbine is
brought back to the main stream;
Diversion canal plants are generally low head or
medium head plants;
They don't have storage reservoir;
Pondage requirement is met through a pool called
forebay located just upstream of the power house;
achieved by:
y be made available due to the flatter bed slopes
p
The head may
of p
power
canal (as compared with the river);
besides, due the river meanders, the length of the river between two points
& locating the power house at the downstream side of the fall provide the
required head;
y In inter-basin diversion, water may be diverted from a higher level river to a
lower river through a diversion canal to the power house located at the lower
river;
The above discussions make it clear that diversion power plants are
have to be moderate.
Run-of-river
Run of river plant,
plant almost invariably,
invariably would be more economical for a
4 Hi h h
d diversion
di
i plants
l t
4.High
head
The features of such a plant the development of high
arrangement:
1)
2)
This advantage is not available to the valley dam plant in which the
power house is built on the downstream face of the dam.
Under such cases, a change in reservoir level also changes the head
proportionately.
ti
t l
If the length of the pressure tunnel is considerable, a surge tank may
be provided upstream of the power station, which may smoothen the
fluctuation of flow demand.
This purpose was served in the canal plants by the forebay.
Main
Components
of high
diversion
plants:
a Co
po e s o
g head
ead d
e so p
a s
Canal/tunnel;
C
l/t
l
Forebay/surge tank;
Penstock;
Power house;
Tail race.
5 Pumped-Storage
5.
Pumped Storage Plants
Pumped storage plants are special types of power
plants
which
work
as
ordinary
conventional
y p
stations for p
part of the time.
hydropower
Pumped storage plant is suitable where:
the natural annual run-off is insufficient to justify a
locations.
locations
This kind of p
plant g
generates energy
peak load, & at off
gy for p
4)
the total pumping during that period. In mixed type of plants, the
higher reservoir has to be necessarily on a natural stream so as
to provide greater flow during generation.
seasonal cycle
y
where the p
pumping
p g is done during
g
seasons of lean demand and generation during high
demand season.
season
pump-turbine installation.
In three
three-unit
unit arrangement, the turbine and generator are permanently
locked together and the pump can be coupled during the pumping
p
phase
Reversible pump-turbines: Any reaction turbine can, technically
Th operating
ti
h
t i ti off the
th reversible
ibl machines
hi
The
characteristics
are different when it runs as a turbine and as a pump.
If the rotational speed is kept constant during both modes,
M
d i
h
f
th simplicity
i li it point
i t off
Many
designs,
however,
from
the
view, keep the same rotational speed during both
phases.
In such a case,
case maximum efficiency occurs at
different heads.
Problems of operation: The main problem of a high head
pump is cavitation.
Cavitation is the phenomenon which manifests in the flow when
pumps as;
Where hb, hs, and h are the barometric head, the suction head (or
the height of the pump above tailwater level) and the total effective
head on the pump, respectively.
According to Thoma, for cavitation free running, , has to be greater
than a critical value given by;
geologic
g
g conditions should be suitable for water-tight
g reservoirs
reservoir
i sites
it should
h ld require
i minimum
i i
excavation
ti and
d
embankment
characteristics;
site should be suitable for a large power installation;
site should be located reasonably close to load
should be available
2 H
d Reservoir
R
i storage
t
i
t are inversely
i
l
2.
Head:
requirements
proportional to head (Figure below),
y selecting
g a site with
so reservoir costs can be minimized by
a high head.
Hydraulic capacity is also inversely proportional to head.
so penstock
t k diameter,
di
t and
d hence
h
penstock
t k costs,
t can also
l
be minimized by maximizing head.
For a given plant capacity, powerhouse costs are lower for
high head plants.
This is because the units run at higher speeds and highspeed machines are smaller than low
low-speed
speed machines.
Because smaller water volumes are required at high head
plants, reservoir drawdowns are usually smaller at both
reservoirs.
reservoirs
Figure. Reservoir storage required vs. head for 1000 MW plant with 14
hours of storage
and discharge
g tunnel lengths.
g
This is particularly important at the lower head sites, because of
the larger
g p
penstock and tunnel diameters involved.
The economic limits to length of water conduits is a function of
Th less
l
th value
l
thi ratio,
ti
th more
The
the
off this
the
economic is the pumped-storage project.
Recent experience suggests that maximum
excavation
ti and
d embankment
b k
t volumes
l
are required,
i d and
d
sites having natural depressions are particularly desirable
Large drawdown may cause slope instability,
so sites with large, relatively shallow reservoirs are usually
5 Lower
L
R
i
P j t costs
t can often
ft
b reduced
d
d
5.
Reservoirs:
Project
be
by using existing reservoirs as lower reservoirs.
However, care should be taken to insure that sufficient storage
p
and submergence
g
requirements,
q
caution should be
operation
exercised when considering the use of existing multiplepurpose
p
p
reservoirs with large
g fluctuation ranges.
g
head
Now if Q is the discharge and H is the gross head,
Then,
hf =kH
then
Example
y
p
p g
g p
A closed cycle
pumping-storage
plant with a g
gross head of
350 m, has a head race tunnel 4 m diameter and 700 m
long The power house discharges directly into the lower
long.
reservoir. The flow velocity is 6.5 m/s and the friction factor
f = 0.018.
0 018 If the
th overallll efficiencies
ffi i
i
off the
th pumping
i
and
d
generation are 85% and 88%, respectively, estimate the
plant efficiency.
S l ti
Solution
Frictionheadloss
=6.8m
6 8
Therefore,
hf = kH
6 8 = k x 350
6.8
K = 0.0194 0.02
efficiency
Plant efficiency,
=71.86%