HYDRO POWER PLANT FEASIBILITY STUDY BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Feasibility Study Of Hydro Power Plant

A pre-feasibility study is carried out to determine whether the site is worth further investigation. This study could involve visiting a site to measure head and flow rate, or it could simply be a map study.

If the site looks promising, the next step is to carry out a full-scale, detailed feasibility study. Information collected by this study should be of the highest quality and should be accurate enough to permit a full technical design of the project without a further visit.

A feasibility study includes a site survey and investigation, a hydrological assessment, an environmental assessment, the project design, a detailed cost estimate and the final report. The depth of study will depend largely on the size and complexity of the system.

For a small system such as a battery-based system, the feasibility study can be less rigorous than for a larger system. Carrying out a feasibility study is highly technical.

Unless you have a strong background and experience in the area, it is best left to professional consultants or energy experts. Such expertise may be expensive, but the project could become much more expensive without professional help.

If a consultant prevents only one serious mistake in the project, that person will have earned his or
her fee many times over. If you are going to call a consultant or manufacturer, make sure that you
have at least a rough estimate of the head (vertical drop), length of pipe needed for the head and an
approximate flow rate of your micro-hydropower site.

These are the first things that you will be asked. The feasibility study should answer as many of the following questions as possible:

• How much head is available?
• How long does the canal/pipeline have to be in order to reach the head?
• What are the minimum and maximum flow rates, and when do these occur?
• How much power can be generated with the available flow rates?
• Who owns the land?
• Where are the nearest electricity power lines?
• What would the environmental effects of installing a micro-hydropower system be?
• What is the approval process to install the micro-hydropower system?
• What financial incentives are available that encourage renewable energy, and how can you apply for them?
• How much will it cost to develop the microhydropower system?

Finding answers to as many questions as possible will enable you to identify any major problems before you invest a lot of time and money in the project.

During the feasibility study, all relevant technical and non-technical information needs to be collected. This includes the location of the intake, forebay tank and powerhouse; the length of the diversion canal/pipeline; the penstock; and the transmission/distribution network.

The feasibility report should contain detailed technical information.

Design of the system includes civil works, the penstock, generating equipment and an estimate for the total cost of the system. It is helpful to keep in mind that the cost per kilowatt increases for low-head systems, low-flow systems and for systems where a great deal of civil works components need to be constructed.

WHAT IS HYDRO POWER? HYDRO POWER BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

Hydropower is produced when kinetic energy in flowing water is converted into electricity. Hydropower has been a significant source of electrical energy in the United States since the early 1900s when manufacturers recognized and harnessed its tremendous potential to develop and build entire industries.



Traditionally, hydropower has been a low-cost, reliable energy source. It utilizes a renewable fuel (water) that can be sustained indefinitely, and is free of fossil fuel emissions. And because hydroelectric generators are especially suited for providing peaking power, hydropower complements thermal generation and improves overall power production efficiency.

Hydroelectricity presently constitutes approximately 10 percent of the United States’ energy supply, which is enough to meet the needs of 28.3 million consumers.

Mankind has used the energy of falling water for many centuries, at first in mechanical form and since the late 19th century by further conversion to electrical energy. Historically, hydropower was developed on a small scale to serve localities in the vicinity of the plants.

With the expansion and increasing load transfer capability of transmission networks, power generation was concentrated in increasingly larger units and to benefit from the economies resulting from development on a larger scale.

In order to convert this potential to applicable electric energy, water flow should be led to and drive a hydraulic turbine, transforming hydroenergy into mechanical energy, the latter again drives a connected generator transforming the mechanical energy into electric energy.

As hydroenergy exploitation and its utilization are completed at the same time. I.e. the exploitation of first energy source and the conversion of secondary energy source occur simultaneously, unlike the coal power generation which should have two orders; first order is exploitation of fuel, second order is generation, so hydropower has the advantages over thermal power generation.