HydroPower

Generation
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Electroogle.blogspot.com
By Usmanumar
Hydroelectric PowerGeneration
INTRODUCTION:

Hydroelectric power generation involves the storage of a hydraulic liquid, water, conversion of the
hydraulic (potential) energy of the liquid into mechanical (kinetic) energy in a hydraulic turbine, and
conversion of the mechanical energy to electrical energy in an electric generator.

 Reffered to as WHITE COAL for its power and plenty

 First hydroelectric power plant came into service in the 1880s
 Now comprising 30% of the world’s installed generation capacity
 Largest dam is THREE GORGES DAM having a capacity of 22,500 MW

EXPLANATION:

The water in rivers posses two types of

energies: kinetic energy and potential energy.
The energy of water due to its motion is called
as kinetic energy. The energy of water due to
its high level is called as potential energy.
Depending on the type of hydraulic power
plants kineticor potential energy of water is
used to generate electricity.

The large quantities of water from river are

diverted by pipelines also called as penstock,
towards the main plant where large turbines
are located. The water from penstock is
allowed to fall on the large turbine blades that
start rotating. The shaft of the turbine rotates
in the electric generators where electricity is
generated. This electricity is then passed to the
transformers from where it is connected to the
main national grid.The water leaving the turbine flows back to the river at the lower levels

ADVANTAGES:

 Quick to start up(Approx 5 mins) , loading , unloading & following of system variations
 Low operating and maintenance cost (Economical)
 Provides flexibility in base loading , peaking and energy storage applications
 Long service life
 High reliability
 Black start capability
  Flood Control
 Used for irrigation

BASIC PURPOSE OF DAMS ARE TO CONTROL FLOOD AND FOR IRRIGATION NOT TO GENERATE
ELECTRICITY

DISADVANTAGES:

 High initial capital cost required

 Loss of land (land per mega watt is very large)
 Installation period is large(aprox 5-8 years)
 Eco-system damage
 Flow shortage
 Relocation
 Failure hazard
 Siltation

TYPES OF POWER PLANTS (Sizes and capacities of hydroelectric facilities):

 LARGE HYDRO
 No official definition
 Ranges from few hundered Megawatts (approx 30 Mw) to more than 10 GW
 Three large dams of the world (Three gorges dam – 22.5 Gw)(Itapiu dam – 14 Gw)
(Guri dam – 10.2 Gw)
 Disadvantage (larger affects on environment)

 SMALL HYDRO
 Upto 30 Mw
 Total world small hydro capacity = 85 Gw
 Production grews by 28% during 2005-2008

 MICRO HYDRO
 Upto 100 Kw
 Can provide power to isolated home , small community

 PICO HYDRO
 Under 5 Kw
 Small turbines of 200-300 W can provide a home with a drop of only 1m(3 ft)
 Typically are run-off river
PLANNING OF HYDRO ELECTRIC FACILITIES
 SITING
 Hydro electric plants are located in geographic areas where they will make economic use of
hydraulic energy sources
 The majority of sites utilize the head developed by freshwater; however, other liquids such as
saltwater and treated sewage have been utilized
 The siting of a prospective hydroelectric requires careful evaluation of technical, economic,
environmental (wild life , eco-system), and social factors (relocation)

 HYDRO ELECTRIC PLANT SCHEMES (CLASSIFICATION)

There are four main types of hydroelectric plant arrangements, classified according to the
method of controlling the hydraulic FLow at the site :

 Run-of-the-river plants, having small amounts of water storage and thus little control of
the flow through the plant
 Storage plants, having the ability to store water and thus control the flow through the
plant on adaily or seasonal basis
 Pumped storage plants, in which the direction of rotation of the turbines is reversed
during off-peak hours, pumping water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir, thus
‘‘storing energy’’ for later production of electricity during peak hours
 Cascaded plants, a series of Power plants (one after another)

 SELECTION OF PLANT CAPACITY, ENERGY, AND OTHER DESIGN FEATURES

 POWER CALCULATION

The poweravailable from falling water can be expressed as

=ρqghe

where

Pth = power theoretically available (W)

ρ = density (kg/m3) (~ 1000 kg/m3 for water)
q = water flow (m3/s)
g = acceleration of gravity (9.81 m/s2)
h = falling height, head (m)
e= coefficient of efficiency ranging from 0 to 1

Due to energy loss the practically available power will be less than the theoretically power.
  DESIGN FEATURES

 Flow rate and head are influenced by reservoir inflow, storage characteristics, plant and
equipment design features, and flow restrictions imposed by irrigation, minimum downstream
releases, or flood control requirements
 Historical daily, seasonal, maximum ( flood), and minimum (drought) flow conditions are
carefully studied in the planning stages
 Physical features such as the dam and spillway structures are optimized through complex
economicstudies that consider the hydrological data, planned reservoir operation,
performance characteristics of plant equipment, construction costs, the value of capacity
and energy, and financial discount rates.
 Another important planning consideration is the selection of the number and size of generating
unitsinstalled to achieve the desired plant capacity and energy, taking into account installed unit
costs, unitavailability, and efficiencies at various unit power outputs

HYDROELECTRIC PLANT FEATURES

The following sections willdescribe the main components such as the turbine, generator, switchgear,
and generator transformer etc.

 TURBINE
There are two classifications of hydraulic turbines: impulse and reaction

IMPULSE TURBINES

 Used for high heads—approximately 300 m or greater

 High-velocity jets of water strike spoon-shaped buckets on the runner which is at atmospheric
pressure
 May be mounted horizontally or vertically
 If include perpendicular jets it is known as a Pelton type
 If include diagonal jets it is known as a Turgo type or cross-flow types

REACTION TURBINES

 Water passes from a spiral casing through stationary radial guide vanesthrough control
gates and onto the runner blades at pressures above atmospheric
 Two categories of reaction turbine—Francis and propeller
 Francis turbine is installed at heads up toapproximately 360 m, the water impacts the
runner blades tangentially and exits axially
  Propeller turbine uses a propeller-type runner and is used at low heads—below
approximately 45 m
 Propeller runner may use fixed blades or variable pitch blades—known as a Kaplan or double
regulated type

Water discharged from the turbine is directed into a draft tube where it exits to a tailrace
channel lower reservoir, or directly to the river.

Figures are shown below

  Flow Control Equipment

 Flow through the turbine is controlled by wicket gates on reaction turbines and by needle nozzles
on impulse turbines.
 Turbine inlet valve or penstock intake gate is provided for isolation of the turbineduring
shutdown and maintenance
 Spillways and additional control valves and outlet tunnels are provided in the dam structure to
pass flows that normally cannot be routed through the turbines
  Generator
 Two types of generators are used : Synchronous generators and induction generators
 Induction generators are used in small hydroelectric applications (lessthan 5 MVA) due to their
lower cost which results from elimination of the exciter, voltage regulator, andsynchronizer
associated with synchronous generators
 Majority of hydroelectric installations utilize salient pole synchronous generators(Salient
polemachines are used because the hydraulic turbine operates at low speeds, requiring a
relatively largenumber of field poles to produce the rated frequency)
 The stator consist of frame, magnetic core and windings where asrotor consist of shaft , thrust
block , spider , rim , field poles with windings , thrust bearing, upper and lower brackets for the
support of bearings etc
 WORKING: Rotor of the generator is attached with turbine with the help of a shaft.In
synchronous generator a DC current (through excitation system) is applied to the rotor
winding, which produces a rotor magnetic field. The rotor of the generator is then
turned by a prime mover(water), producing a rotating magnetic field within the
machine. This rotating magnetic field induces a three phase set of voltages within the
stator windings of the generator.
 Fire protection systems are normally installed to detect combustion products in the
generator
 Vibration monitoring devices such as proximity probes to detect shaft runout are
provided to initiate alarms and unit shutdown

 GENERATOR TERMINAL EQUIPMENT

 The generator output is connected to terminal equipment via cable, busbar, or isolated
phase bus
 The terminal equipment comprises current transformers (CTs), voltage transformers
(VTs)(for unit protection, metering and synchronizing, and for governor and excitation
system functions) and surge suppression devices consisting of surge arresters and
capacitors to protect the generator and low-voltage windings of the step-up transformer
from lightning and switching-induced surge
 The generator circuit breaker (may be of the oil filled, air magnetic, air blast, or
compressed gas insulated type, depending on the specific application) and associated
isolating disconnect switches are used to connect and disconnect the generator to and
from the power system
  GENERATOR STEPUP TRANSFORMER
 Generator output voltages range from approximately 480 VAC to 22 kVACline-to-line,
depending on the MVA rating of the unit.
 Generator transformer steps up the generator terminal voltage to the voltage of the
power system
 Generally specified and operated in accordance withinternational standards for power
transformers

 EXCITATION SYSTEMS
 It produces DC voltage (and power) to force current to flow in the field windings of the
generator
 The most common arrangement is thyristor bridge others are potential source
controlled rectifier high initial response exciter’ , bus-fed static exciter , brushless
exciter

Other Systems involving in hydropower are GOVERNOR SYSTEM ,CONTROL SYSTEM and
PROTECTION SYSTEM

Special Considerations Affecting Pumped Storage Plants

A pumped storage unit is one in which the turbine and generator are operated in the reverse
direction topump water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir. The generator becomes
a motor, drawing its energy from the power system, and supplies mechanical power to the
turbine which acts as a pump The motor is started with the wicket gates closed and the draft
tube water depressed with compressedair. The motor is accelerated in the pump direction and
when at full speed and connected to the powersystem, the depression air is expelled, the pump
is primed, and the wicket gates are opened to commencepumping action.
 UseFull Links ForHydroPower Study
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydro/

http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/mechanical/articles/7066.aspx

http://www.leonardo-energy.org/e-learning

http://nerg.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/n-er-g-talks-hydroelectric-power/

References
 Hydro electric power generation by James , Douglas
 Wikipedia
 Above mentioned links
 Sir LehazUllah Notes