HYDROPOWER

 Hydropower is the electricity or power that is generated

from the energy of moving water. Hydro means “water.”
 Hydroelectricity is the term referring
to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of
electrical power through the use of the gravitational force
of falling or flowing water.
 In Hydro Power Plant the water is utilized to move the
turbines which in turn run the electric generator’s.
 The Potential energy of the water stored in the dam gets converted into
the Kinetic Energy of the moving water in the penstock. And this Kinetic
Energy gets converted into the Electrical Energy with the help of
Turbine & Generator (T-G) combination.
 It is a renewable source of energy. It is constantly being refilled by the
water cycle.
 Hydro Power Plant fulfills the 30% of the total energy needs of the
world.
 Ancient Greek farmers have used water wheels to grind wheat into
flour.

 In 1848, the turbine was created, improving the waterwheels and

mills which were bulky and slow. Turbines are specific to each site.
 In the early 1800’s, American and European factories made use of the
water wheel to run machines.
 In 1878 the world's first hydroelectric power scheme was developed
at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George
Armstrong. It was used to power a single arc lamp in his art gallery.
 The first hydroelectric power plant was built at the Niagara Falls in
1879.
 In the late 1940’s, big dams for hydropower had been built.
 Hydropower was the foremost source of energy for new inventions.
 The first and foremost use of hydropower is to generate electricity.
 Hydropower also powers machines.
 Hydropower has been used for irrigation and operating mechanical
devices (such as water mills, sawmills, and dock cranes) during
ancient times.
 Water mills produces flour from grain and saw timber and stone.
They also extracted metal from ores.
 PRIMARY ELEMENT’S
 CATCHMENTS AREA
 RESERVOIR
 DAM
 PRIME MOVERS
 DRAFT TUBES
 POWER HOUSE & EQUIPMENT
 SAFETY DEVICE’S
 SPILL WAY’S
 SURGE TANK
 TRASH RACK
 The whole area behind the clam training into a stream as
river across which the dam has been built at suitable place is
called catchments area
 A reservoir is employed to store water which is further
utilized to generate power by running the hydroelectric
turbines.
 A dam is a barrier which confines or raise water for storage
or diversion to create a hydraulic head.
 Dam’s are generally made of concrete, Stone masonry, Rock
fill or Timber .
 Turbine & Generator is the most important part of any power plant
 This combination is known as THE HEART OF THE POWER PLANT.
 TURBINE :- Turbine is a very light fan like structure having many
number’s of blades . It has an ability to rotate on its axis when water
passes through it.
 GENERATOR :- Generator is a device in which when there is rotation
of coil between the strong Magnetic Field then it produces an
Alternating Current.
 Draft Tube is an empty structure made beneath the Turbine.
 The draft tube is a conduit which connects the runner exit to the tail
race where the water is being finally discharged from the turbine.
The primary function of the draft tube is to reduce the velocity of the
discharged water to minimize the loss of kinetic energy at the outlet.
 It increases the output power.
 It increases the efficiency of Hydro Power Plant.
 Penstock is the connecting pipe between the dam & the turbine
house.
 It helps to increase the kinetic energy of the water coming from the
dam.
 Penstock is made up of a very strong material which can sustain the
high pressure of water.
 Some more components are required for the proper, user friendly &
smooth functioning of the power plant. These components are as
follow:
 VALVE :- This the instrument which is used to control the pressure of
flow of water .
 PUMPS :- This device is used to send water or any fluid from lower
potential to higher potential.
 Spill Way’s is a kind of canal provided besides the dam.
 Spill Way’s is used to arrange the excess of accumulation of water on
the dam because excess accumulation of water may damage the dam
structure .
 When there is a sudden close or decrease in pressure due to control
valve then there is a back flow of water. This creates a high pressure
zone in the penstock due to which it may burst . This effect is known
as WATER HAMMERING EFFECT .
 To avoid this a tank is attached to the penstock which stores water in
it . This tank is called as Surge Tank.
 Initially the water of the river is in Catchments Area.
 From catchments area the water flows to the dam.
 At the dam the water gets accumulated . Thus the potential energy
of the water increases due to the height of the dam .
 When the gates of the dam are opened then the water moves with
high Kinetic Energy into the penstock.
 Through the penstock water goes to the turbine house.
 Since the penstock makes water to flow from high altitude to low
altitude, Thus the Kinetic Energy of the water is again raised.
 In the turbine house the pressure of the water is controlled by the
controlling valves as per the requirements.
 The controlled pressurized water is fed to the turbine.
 Due to the pressure of the water the light weight turbine rotates.
 Due to the high speed rotation of the turbine the shaft connected
between the turbine and the generator rotates .
 Due to the rotation of generator the ac current is produced.
 This current is supplied to the powerhouse .
 From powerhouse it is supplied for the commercial purposes.
 Hydropower is the most energy efficient power generator.
Currently, hydropower is capable of converting 90% of the
available energy into electricity. This can be compared to
the most efficient fossil fuel plants, which are only
60% efficient
 THEORETICAL- The maximum potential that exists.
 TECHNICAL- It takes into account the cost involved in
exploiting a source (including the environmental and
engineering restrictions)
 ECONOMIC- Calculated after detailed environmental,
geological, and other economic constraints.
 REGION THEORETICAL TECHNICAL
POTENTIAL POTENTIAL
(TWh) (TWh)
AFRICA 10118 3140
N. AMERICA 6150 3120
LATIN AMERICA 5670 3780
ASIA 20486 7530
OCEANIA 1500 390
EUROPE 4360 1430
WORLD 44280 19390
COUNTRY POWER CAPACITY INSTALLED
(GWh) CAPACITY (GW)
TAJIKISTAN 527000 4000
CANADA 341312 66954
USA 319484 79511
BRAZIL 285603 57517
CHINA 204300 65000
RUSSIA 160500 44000
NORWAY 121824 27528
JAPAN 84500 27229
INDIA 82237 22083
FRANCE 77500 77500
 Theoretical potential is about 40,500 TWh per year.
 The technical potential is about 14,300 TWh per year.
 The economic potential is about 8100 TWh per year.
 The world installed hydro capacity currently stands at 694
GW.
 In the 1980s the percentage of contribution by
hydroelectric power was about 8 to 9%.
 The total power generation in 2000 was 2675 Billion KWh
or close to 20% of the total energy generation.
 Most of the undeveloped potential lies in the erstwhile USSR
and the developing countries.
 Worldwide about 125 GW of power is under construction.
 The largest project under construction is the Three Gorges at
the Yangtze river in China. Proposed potential is 18.2 GW and
the proposed power output is 85 TWh per year.
By far the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world is ITAIPU, a project jointly
developed by Brazil and Paraguay. With a capacity of 12,600 megawatts (MW), it
produced a record 89 million MWh of electric power in 1997 - 26.4% of the total
demand of Brazil and 79% of Paraguay
 Hydropower
Technology

Pumped
Impoundment Diversion
Storage
 Doesn’t require dam
 Facility channels portion
of river through canal or
penstock
 During Storage, water
pumped from lower
reservoir to higher one.
 Water released back to
lower reservoir to
generate electricity.
 Operation : Two pools of Water
 Upper pool – impoundment
 Lower pool – natural lake,
river or storage reservoir
 Advantages :
 Production of peak power
 Can be built anywhere with
reliable supply of water

The Raccoon Mountain project

 Arch
 Gravity
 Buttress
 Arch shape gives strength
 Less material (cheaper)
 Narrow sites
 Need strong abutments
(the point where two structures or
objects meet. )
These are the main forces on a dam:

 Forces of the reservoir water

 Uplift force
 Weight of Concrete
 All forces together

Some other forces are also act on the dam like:

 Temperature variations
 Chemical reactions
 Wave load on the upstream side
 Earthquake loads
 Settlement of the foundation
 Other structures on top of the dam -- gates, a bridge, cars
 Creep of concrete: deformation of the concrete when under a
constant load for a long period of time.
 Weight holds dam in
place
 Lots of concrete
(expensive)
 Gravity dams are dams which resist the horizontal thrust of
the water entirely by their own weight.
 Concrete gravity dams are typically used to block streams
through narrow passage.
 Because it is there weight holding the water back, concrete
gravity dams tend to use a large amount of concrete. This
can be expensive.
 But many prefer its solid strength to arch or buttress dams.
 Face is held up by
a series of
supports
 Flat or curved face
Definitions may vary.
Large plants : capacity >30 MW
Small Plants : capacity b/w 100 kW to 30 MW
Micro Plants : capacity up to 100 kW
 Many creeks and rivers are permanent, i.e., they never dry up, and
these are the most suitable for micro-hydro power production
 Micro hydro turbine could be a waterwheel
 Newer turbines : Pelton wheel (most common)
 Others : Turgo, Crossflow and various axial flow turbines
 fossil fuel: 65% of total
 hydro: 31% of total
 nuclear: 4% of total

 Pakistan is producing 6,823 MW electricity

from hydel power.
 Tarbela Dam
 Its capacity is 3478 MW
 It is situated in Tarbela, Haripur District, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Indus River
 Mangla dam
 Its capacity is 1120 MW
 It is situated in Mirpur Azad Kashmir Jhelum river
 Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project
 It is situated in Attock, Punjab, Indus River
 1,450MW

 Warsak Dam
 It is situated in Peshawar, Kabul River, KPK
 Its capacity is 243MW
Chashma Barrage
 It is located in Chashma, Indus River, Punjab.
 Its capacity is 184MW.
 Duber Khwar hydropower project
 Kohistan District, KPK, Indus River.
 130MW
 According to survey Pakistan has 100,000MW production potential.
 As is well known, hydroelectric power is the cheapest, cleanest and
indigenous form of energy. Pakistan has 65,000 megawatts of
identified projects and 100,000MW potential.
 Environmental Benefits of Hydro
• No operational greenhouse gas emissions
• Savings (kg of CO2 per MWh of electricity):
– Coal 1000 kg
– Oil 800 kg
– Gas 400 kg
• NO, SO2 or NOX
 Non-environmental benefits
– flood control, irrigation, transportation, fisheries and
– tourism.
 No fuel charges.
 Less supervising staff is required.
 Maintenance & operation charges are very low.
 Running cost of the plant is low.
 The plant efficiency does not changes with age.
 It takes few minutes to run & synchronize the plant.
 No fuel transportation is required.
 No ash & flue gas problem & does not pollute the atmosphere.
 These plants are used for flood control & irrigation purpose.
 Long life in comparison with the Thermal & Nuclear Power Plant
 It is readily available. It can be controlled easily.
 Hydropower can store energy. The water can be saved and managed
efficiently, depending on the seasons. It can also be used again and again.
 It wastes less energy.
 Dams control flooding and the water supply.
 Reservoirs can also offer leisure activities, such as swimming and boating

 . Dams are designed to last many decades and so can contribute to the
generation of electricity for many years / decades.
 The initial cost of the power plant is very high.
 Takes long time for construction of the dam.
 Generally, Such plant’s are located in hilly area’s far away from load
center & thus they require long transmission lines & losses in them
will be more.
 Power generation by hydro power plant is only dependent on
natural phenomenon of rain .Therefore at the time of drought or
summer session the Hydro Power Plant will not work.
 Wildlife habitats can be changed or destroyed. Fish, for example,
may not be able to swim upstream to reproduce. Their spawning and
migratory patterns are disrupted.