Hydropower Energy Management for Nickel Smelter

(Study Case PT Vale Indonesia)

XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE

 1st Nurkholis
Master Student at Engineering Physics
Department
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
nurkholis@vale.com
line 5: email address
2nd Aulia M. T. Nasution
Senior Lecturer at Engineering Physics
Department
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
anasution@its.ac.id
3rd Bambang L. Widjiantoro
Senior Lecturer at Engineering Physics
Department
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya, Indonesia
blelono@yahoo.com
line 1: 6th
 Abstract— Energy Is one
of impoertant thing beside
raw of material to produce
nickel In order to meet
energy requirement to
produce Nickel through the
process of smelting pyro
metallurgy, PT. Vale
Indonesia operates three
hydroelectric power plants:
Larona, Balambano and
Karebbe. These plants
generate 365 megawatts of
power that supplies the
electricity to operate smelter
plant. The presence of
hydroelectric plants reduce
the need for fuel-based
power plants, they are the
main initiative energy
efficiency program, and
significantly reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Hydroelectric using water
from Larona River which
had a relative high annual
debit fluctuation and hence it
was necessary to retain the
excessive water debit in the
rainy season to overcome the
deficit of the water in the dry
season by constructing three
cascade reservoir in the
downstream of Towuti lake
for hydropower operation. A
dam stores water in a
reservoir, from which water
flows through penstock pipes
to-generate electricity. The
quantity of electricity
produced is determined by
the volume of water flow and
the height from the top of the
turbines to the water surface
at the base of the dam. The
operation of the reservoir
was synergized with
Hydropower energy demand.
The study come with the idea
to managing energy
production and planning for
maintenance Hydro plan
unit and Smelterplant unit
with dependable flow
projection where is on
September and october is the
best time to shutdown the
unit for maintenance rather
than still running to respon
demand 295 Mw with
additional diesel power
generation which is most
costly. The results show that
the proposed technique is
capable of producing better
results.
Keywords— water saving,
smelter, energy, hydropower,
larona river
I. INTRODUCTION
Pt Vale Indonesia as
Global resource companies
are currently operating
under very challenging
economic and regulatory
conditions. In response to
growing society concern
about the various impacts of
the minerals industry, and
the emergence of the
concept of sustainable
development as the key
framework within which
these impacts are analyzed,
most organizations in the
sector are now reporting
their performance in this
area using a range of
sustainability indicators.
Among these, energy use
and its impact on climate
change are priorities, with
many company
sustainability reports
including total energy use
and associated greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions in
both absolute and relative
terms (i.e. normalized to a
per unit product) among
their key environmental
sustainability indicators.
Companies are setting
targets to achieve
improvements in these
indicators[1]
Nickel production most
of depend on : 1. Energy, 2.
Raw of material, and 3.
Reliability. In this paper
will be focused of the
energy management which
point 2 and Point 3 will be
another study.
Operational activity and
policy for water
management distribution for
several conditions are
determining factors for both
the water stored in and
released from reservoirs.
The type of reservoir
operation involves various
significant steps and
regulations in decision
making.
Based on the type of
system, there are single and
multi-reservoir systems.
Multi-reservoir systems can
be organized and connected
both in series or as parallel
units. In this paper, we
focus on multi-reservoir
systems that are in series,
forming a cascade.
Furthermore, reservoirs can
be classified according to
their function and one
distinguishes single purpose
and multi-purpose
reservoirs. Single purpose
reservoirs have a clear
function and water may be
used for power generation
supply and flood
management. The operation
of multi-purpose reservoirs
also involves various
interactions between these
different functions that can
lead to conflicting interests.
[2]
Fig 1 Location of
Hydroelectric Power
Generation
Study case on this paper
at PT Vale Indonesia
located at South Sulawesi.
The operation of multi
reservoir systems from
different points of view and
with various objectives as
well as by different
organizers easily results in
conflicts. For example, in
the Larona, balambano and
Karebbe Reservoirs, All
reservoirs using for
generation of hydropower is
the main issue and the main
objective is to maintain
head in order to produce
maximum power. The
philosophy of this model is
to make use of the water
balance in the reservoirs by
applying proportional/equal
sharing of water that is
based on the effective
volume for each reservoir.
The main objective of
this study intended to build
an operational model to
ease the decisions about the
optimal energy to be
produce nickel and build
maintenance planning of the
Unit hydropower generation
and Smelter plant to
increase reliability and
Nickel production. .
1. Hydropower
Technology
In engineering, power is
the rate with respect to
time of doing work. The
work may be in form of
mechanical, electrical,
or hydraulic. In any
work process, forces are
involved on or by a
system whereby a
system is defined as a
quantity of matter that is
bounded. Hydropower
is the rate at which
hydraulic energy is
extracted from a specific
amount of falling water
as a result of its velocity
or position or both. The
rate of change of
angular momentum of
falling water or its
pressure or both on the
turbine blade surfaces
creates a differential
force on the turbine
runner thereby causing
rotary motion. As a
working fluid, water in a
hydropower system is
not consumed, it is thus
available for other uses
[6].
a. General overview
of hydropower
schemes
Hydropower can be
generated wherever
a flow of water
descends from a
higher level to a
lower level. The
difference between
the two water
surface elevations
is referred to as
head. Head can
exist in nature, for
instance when a
stream runs down a
steep hillside or
when a sharp
change in elevation
creates a waterfall
in a river. However,
head can also be
created artificially
 by constructing a 2. Hedging rules for
weir or dam; the hydropower reservoir
dam creates a operation
barrier to water
From the above listed
flow, raising the
upstream water literature, it is evident
that hedging rules have
level to the desired
elevation. As a been applied for
domestic, industrial,
result of elevation
differences and irrigation water
supplies. The benefit of
gravitational
potential energy is these cases is a function
of water flowrate.
stored in the water;
this energy can be However, in the case of
hydropower generation,
exploited by
installing turbines the benefitt is a
function of product of
and generators.
Water flow moves head of water and
flowrate. Hence, the
the turbine blades,
thereby converting hedging rules used for
other purposes cannot
water’s potential
energy into kinetic be directly used for
hydropower reservoir
energy. The turbine
rotation forces the operation.[4]
generator rotator to The power generation
spin around the (P) from hydropower
stator thereby
reservoir is directly
converting kinetic
proportional to both
energy first to flowrate (Q) and
mechanical energy, available head (H) at
and then to the turbine). The
electrical energy relationship between
[6]. head and storage
available in the
reservoir is non-linear.
If the water availability
in a reservoir is more,
the head availability is
also more. Hence, for a
given quantity of power
generation, when the
water availability in a
reservoir is less, more
discharge is required.
Thus, for a given power
generation, water
Fig 2 Typical of demand is a function of
available storage[16].
Hydroelectric Power
Generation However, water
demand in the case of
b. Classification and domestic, industrial, or
types of irrigation water supply
hydropower is not dependent on
schemes available water in the
reservoir. According to
As mentioned
earlier, each the hedging rules
developed for the
hydropower plant is
site-specific, but operation of domestic,
industrial, or irrigation
plants can be
classified according water supply reservoir,
water release depends
to the following
parameters: on available water
alone (since the water
• Size or installed demand is taken as a
capacity constant for a given
period) and, hence, in
• Head availability
the graphical form,
• Operation regime 'available water' is
taken on x-axis and energy to be smelted
'release' is taken on y- [5]. Current in the
axis. In other words, electrode produces a
water demand to huge amount of heat to
domestic, industrial, or smelt the calcine in the
irrigation water supply furnace. Figure 3 below
reservoir is a fixed shown actual energy
value in a given period. consume by each
However, in the case of smelter
hydropower reservoir,
water demand is not
constant; but, power
demand is constant.
Hence, the rules with
'storage available' on x-
axis and 'power
production' on y-axis
are similar to the
Fig 4 Load of the Furnaces in
operation rules applied PT. Vale Indonesia
for municipal water
supply (Figure 3).
Hence, the operation Each smelter required
energy
rules may be presented
in the graphical form a. Provide energy to
with 'power generation
complete reduction
possible' (based on
releasing all the reactions.
available water or the b. Provide energy to
turbine capacity melt matte and slag.
whichever is less) on x- c. Provide energy to
axis and 'power maintain bath at
generation' (suggested specified
as per the rule) on y- temperature.
axis. However, d. Provide vessel
providing the rule with volume with
'storage available' on x- sufficient capacity
axis and 'release of for required
water' on y-axis is more residence time.
readable. e. Product: Matte ~
1350 ºC; ~25 - 30%
Ni.
f. Disposal: Slag ~
1540 ºC; ~ 55 - 60%
Fe
High voltage smelting
of ferronickel or nickel
laterite ore requires
shielding of the arc
Fig 3 Typical Scheme of cavity below a deep
Power and Release vs calcine.
Available Storage
3. Energy Demand
PT Vale Indonesia
using 4 smelters, for
nickel reduction by
carried out in furnace
by using pyro-
metallurgy process. The
current is transferred
through electrode
through the bath that
function as impedance
(Z) in the system.
Impedance is actually
identical as a load to the
furnace that requires

Fig 5 One line diagram
electricity source
Figure 5 is shown
energy mapping both
hydro and thermal
generation using four
smelter in nickel
production, in 2011
energy from thermal
production starting to
decrease, in line
Karebbe hydro power
plant cascade from
Balambano was
Installed with capacity
design 2 × 65 MW.
Fig 6 Energy Mapping in PT.
Vale Indonesia
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Objective Functions
and Constraints
The principal scope of
this paper is to discover
how the hydropower
reservoirs system could
produce more power
generation as a clean
energy. Therefore,
maximizing the total power
generation throughout the
horizontal time (2011-2017)
was taken as an objective
whenever different physical
and operational limits are
considered. Hence, the
objective function can be
affirmed as a nonlinear
optimization problem,
which is accompany with
constrained [5].
Potential Hydropower
Output is defined as the
difference between actual
power output and
theoretical power output.
All hydropower plants are
under conditions such that
they satisfy the required
water demand and initial
power demand [10].
Therefore, the evaluation
objective is to obtain the
difference between the
maximum power output
from the cascade
hydropower complex and
actual power output during
the same period. The
objective function can be
described as below:
(1)
where T is time horizon;
N is the total number of
hydropower plants in the
cascade plants; i is index for
the number of plants; Δt is
time interval (hours); t is the
index for the current period;
Pi,t is power output
during the tth period
(kW); ηi,t is the hydropower
generation efficiency of the
ith plant during the period;
Qi,t is the discharge through
the plant turbines of the ith
plant during the tth period
(m3/s); Hi,t is the difference
between reservoir water
level and tail-race water
level for the ith plant during
the tth period (m).
Study emphasized the
maximization of economic
benefits focused on the
development of techniques
or the establishment of
management rules and
applying them to water
resources management and
planning,
Economic generation
scheduling of hydrothermal
systems involves the
optimization of a problem
with nonlinear objective
function subject to a
mixture of linear, non-linear
constraints. As the fuel cost
of hydroelectric plants is
insignificant in comparison
with that of thermal power
plants, the objective is to
minimize the fuel cost of
thermal power plants, while
making use of the
availability of hydro-
resources as much as
possible. The objective
function and associated
constraints are described as
follows:
Minimize
(2)
where, F (Psit ) is the
total fuel cost, T is the
number of time interval for
scheduling horizon, Ns is
the number of thermal
plants and Psit is the power
generation by the i-th
thermal plants at time t.
Conventionally, the fuel
cost curve for any unit can
be represented by segments
of quadratic functions of the
active power output of the
generator and can be
expressed as
(3)
where, asi, bsi, csi, fuel
cost coefficients of the i-th
thermal unit.
For more practical and
accurate modeling of fuel
cost function, the above
expression needs to be
modified suitably. Modern
thermal power plants
comprise of generating
units having multi-valve
steam turbines in order to
incorporate flexible
operational facilities. The
generating units with multi-
valve turbines have very
different cost curve
compared with that defined
by (3). The effect of valve-
point effect loading may be
considered by adding a
sinusoidal function [9] to
the quadratic cost function
described above. Hence, the
function described by (3) is
revised as follows:
(4)
Where fu (Psit) is the
fuel cost function of thermal
units including the valve
point loading effect and esi,
fsi are fuel cost coefficients
of the i-th thermal
generating unit.
The above objective
function described by (4) is
to be minimized subject to a
variety of constraints as
follows:
1) Demand constraints
The total power generated
must balance the power
demand plus losses, at each
time interval over the entire
scheduling period
(5)
where Phjt is the power
generation of jth hydro
generating unit at time t, PDt
is power demand at time t
and , PLt is total
transmission loss at the
corresponding time.
The hydropower
generation is a function of
water discharge rate and
reservoir storage volume,
which can be described by
(5) as follow:
(6)
Where C1j, C2j C3j, C4j,
C5j, C6j, are power
generation coefficients of j
th hydro generating unit,
Vhjt is the storage volume of
j-th reservoir at time t and
Qhjt is water discharge rate
of j-th reservoir at time t.
B. Typical Hydro Plant
Discharge Constraints
After specifying the
release in time interval, the
quantity of releases (Rt)
must be checked to be in a
permissible limit.[5]
(7)
where, Qmin and Qmax
are the minimum and
maximum water discharge
rate of the j-th reservoir
respectively.
C. Water Balance
Equation
After specifying release,
storage at the beginning of
the next time could be
determined by using water
balance equation

(8)
Where, St is storage at time
t, St-1 is storage at time t-1,
It is inflow at time t, Et is
evaporation at time t, Rt is
release at time t, SPt is spill
at time t.
D. Reservoir Storage
Capacity
The reservoir storage
capacity or water available
in time interval must be
located in permissible
limits.
(9)
Where, Smin is
reservoir storage at
minimum water level, and
Smax is reservoir storage at
maximum operating level.
E. Hydro Power Plant
Constraints
The power generation in
time interval must be
located in acceptable limits
as:
(10)
Where, Gmin: minimum
energy generation (KWh),
and Gmax: maximum
power generation (KWh).
The above-mentioned
parameters are specified
according to turbines
capacity.
F. Hydrology Inflow
By using the Weibull
formula, historical supply
data of several years were
analyzed independently.
This formula enables to
provide a reasonably
accurate forecast based on
small samples, as well as
simple and useful plot. In
the Weibull for the n value
(number of years) are
distributed uniform between
0-100 percent probability,
so there must be n plus 1
interval, n – 1 between the
data point 1 and 2 at the
end.[8]
(11)
Where, P is probability
plotting (%), X is random
variable, x is probability
distribution associated with
the rank m.
m Ranking position, n
number of years. The
analysis procedure is as
follows:
1. The frequency or
number of maximum to
minimum occurrence m
in the n years of 365
daily discharge data has
been selected. The daily
inflow, diversion, an
overflow data has been
selected as well
2. The 80% of failure
probability of the data
has been analyzing to
determine the minimum
discharge. The
percentage of
probability of 50% can
be considered as the
mean discharge.
III. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of this
experiment as follow.
Fig 7 The Hydropower
Energy Management for
Nickel Smelter
From data evaluation
assume raw of material
enough and actual data
availability of the smelter
90%, all data collected and
calculated to find best result
of planning and managing
energy
on optimization using MS
excel 2016 as shown in the
IV. RESUL T AND table I below.
DISCUSSION
Larona River basin is TABLE I CALCULATION
located in Southeast DATA INFLOW OF LARONA
Sulawesi at approximately RIVER
2° 40' latitude south and
121° 20' east.. The reservoir
was built for the main
purpose of hydropower
generation. The reservoir
has a storage capacity of
2057,05 million m3 at a full
reservoir level of 319.6 m
and its capacity at minimum
draw down level of 316.70
m is 390,83 million m3.
There are 8 turbines with a
maximum total power
generation capacity of 380
MW with proportional
operation. Smelter consume
up to 295 MW, Auxiliary From data calculation
50-60 MW and 3% losses for 32 year period found
through transmission line. trend inflow with affecting
level of reservoir during a
Thirty-two years of year, defendable flow for
inflow into the reservoir is 20, 50 and 80 % probability
used in this study. Monthly there are shown in August
period is used and, hence, September and October the
for the 32 years, the total target energy cannot be
number of periods is 365. respond of the power
The evaporation loss is demand if smelter demand
calculated by multiplying set at 295MWH due to low
water spread area and rate water availability.
of evaporation. In a
monthly step, the average From data simulation
storage ((beginning storage using Q50 inflow with
+ end storage)/2) is worked maintenance and production
and the corresponding planning shut down during
a year, which is current
water.
planning to shutdown 3
generator Hydro larona for
70 day starting on february,
during shut down in
february-April as shown on
the table II need to run
diesel power generation to
supply energy 69,744
MWH, also on september
and october water
availability tend to low if
the production still set at
295MWH The diesel
generator will run to supply
energy 28,800 MWH to
compensate power demand.
Fig 8 Correlation between
Flow Vs Rainfall
Projection Water
availability was calculated
from 32 years’ data using
Weibull as equation 11, and
found data which reflecting
condition in dry (less
inflow), Normal and Wet
(more inflow) season based
TABLE II ENERGY DEMMAND Reservoir with no
FOR DAM RIVER FLOW spilling
2. During September water
availability tend to low
and to respond energy
demand around 295
MWH. thermal power
plant needed to fulfill
energy
3. Inflow At Q50 During
September and October,
Diesel generation will
be running around
28,800 MWH. to
respond power demand
Base on current hydro
powerplant shutdown 4. Operational Planning
planning compare with both from hydropower
study in this paper shown Plant and Smelter plant
on February inflow tend to can be use water inflow
increase at highest 230 m/s3
table to panning major
to the batubessi reservoir shutdown maintenance
where is water will be during September and
release through spill October.
without energy generation
and there is cost USD$ 10 5. Operation Cost Potential
Million to run diesel to be reduce approx.
generator USD $4.5 Million a year
if shutdown move to
September-November
Acknowledgements
This study is part of the
Megister research which
was done in Institut
Teknologi Sepuluh
Nopember, Surabaya,
Indonesia
. Modified Hybrid Differential
Fig 9 energy cost during
ayear
Authors’ contributions
All authors
Compare between study participated in the
result and current design of the study,
maintenance planning there performed the
is potential saving of energy literature search and
if schedule shutdown move
wrote the manuscript,
to the September – October data acquisition,
approx. USD $4.5 Million
analysis, and
as shown on the figure 9 interpretation. All
authors critically
V. CONCLUSIONS reviewed, refined, and
The reservoir management approved the
it is very important to manuscript
generated power PT Vale
Indonesia to produce nickel
at optimum and low cost
energy.
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